Job Bank Database Searching Tips

Job Bank Database Search Tips

To learn more about how this search engine works try the variety of Search Options on the Main Search page :Browse contents, Browse by keyword, Browse matrix form, Browse matrix list, What's New, and Advance Search. As well read the search information below.

Quick Tips type +State:"TX" in the Search text box to find records where the State Field equals TX.

Type: +jobtitle:"design engineer" +State:"OR" to find records where the jobtitle equals design engineer and the State: field equals OR.

Type: +jobtitle:"design engineer" +State:"OR" +Yearly_Salary_Range:"35,000 - 40,000"to find records where the jobtitle equals design engineer and the State: field equals OR and the Yearly_Salary_Range 35,000 - 40,000. Note: field names are case sensitive.

You can use this same search syntax with any of the database field name.

To learn more about the database field names click on the Main Search Menu Page and then click on the "field help" in the "Other" area. Some field names include State:, City:, email:, etc..

Search syntax

This database support three types of searches, simple search, field search and expression search. The first two are similar to AltaVista's simple syntax.

Generally this database uses a full text search approach; all fields are searched for words written in the search expression. Double quotes can be used to group words into phrases such as "New York".

Several search words separated by blanks and grouped by quotes can be specified e.g.

"New York" sell painting

This database will try to find records which contain at least one of the terms defined above, but will sort results so that the records which match more terms are listed on top. The above search will also return records in which people from New York wish to buy paintings.

"New York" +sell painting

would limit the results to records which contain the word sell and then "New York" or "painting" or none of the other two. Similarly, pre-pending the term with a -, records which contain the term will not be listed:

-"New York" +sell +car

will list records which contain words sell and car and do not contain the phrase "New York".

Search terms may also contain regular expressions which can help in making searches more precise. Searches are matched to word beginnings. Searching for "cat" will not match "tomcat" but will match "cathy". Searching for "cat\b" will not find "cathy" either.

Field search

Nicer search syntax now allows fieldname:value type of syntax:

To view all the field names in this database go to the main page and click on "database fields" in the "Other" area on the main menu.

+State:"TX"

Find only records where the State: field equals "TX".

+email:edu

Word starting in edu must be in email field.

-email:edu

Word starting edu must not be in email field.

email:edu

has the same meaning as +email:edu

Expression search

If the search field includes character {, then everything to right (and including) this character is interpreted as a search expression. These search expressions are in fact Perl expressions with the following specialties:

{fieldname} denots value of a field; e.g. {price} > 1000 will only find records where in the price field is larger than 1000
Perl's logical operators && || and ! should be replaced by words and, or and not.
Some strings and characters are not allowed. You will be warned.

Example of a complex search:

painting +city:"New York" {price} < 1000 and not {author} =~ /turk/

Tips for fast searching

Searches which return few results are faster - include a +something.
Begin searches with +exotic-word +less-exotic +plain anything
Field searches are much faster then expression searches.
Pure expression searches are slowest.

Please read information at the Top of This Page for Quick Tips