Boolean Operations
for WinSPIRS / WebSPIRS / MacSPIRS searching

Venn Diagram
(The gray shading represents the outcome of the Boolean operation)

 Description
And-2 AND retrieves records which contain both terms.

The terms may occur anywhere in the record unless restricted using the IN operator. Sets of terms may be combined in addition to single terms.
And-3 Multiple AND operators may be used to combine more than two terms. Only records containing all the terms will be retrieved.

If the AND operator retrieves too many irrelevant records you may need to use a proximity operator.
Or-2 OR finds records which contain either or both terms.

The terms may occur anywhere in the record unless restricted by the IN operator. Sets of terms may be combined in addition to single terms.
Or-3 Multiple OR operators may be used to combine more than two terms. Records must contain at least one of the terms to be retrieved.
Not NOT finds records containing one term but not another.

The terms may occur anywhere in the record unless restricted by the IN operator. Sets of terms may be combined in addition to single terms.
Mixed-a Mixing operators is allowed. Use parentheses to specify the proper combination.

This strategy will retrieve records containing  the pair   of words renal & failure, or the pair of words kidney & failure, or all three terms.
Mixed-b Without the parentheses the AND operation is done first because processing proceeds from left to right.

This strategy will retrieve records containing either the pair of words renal & failure or any record with the word kidney.