MySQL Boolean Search Tips

OperatorsMeaning
+A leading "+" means the word is mandatory in all results returned.
-A leading "-" means the word cannot appear in any row returned.
<A leading "<" means the word that follows has a lower relevance than other words, although results containing it will still match
>A leading ">" means the word that follows has a higher relevance than other words.
()Parenthesis is used to group words into subexpressions to give them higher precedence.
~A leading "~" means the word following contributes negatively to the relevance of the row (which is different to the '-' operator, which specifically excludes the word, or the '<' operator, which still causes the word to contribute positively to the relevance of the row.
*A trailing wildcard "*" indicats zero or more leading characters. It can only appear at the end of a word.
"..."Anything enclosed in the double quotes is taken as a whole (so you can match phrases, for example).
special cases
  • 3 letters or less: ignored.
  • Stop words (the, for, some, any, etc.): ignored.
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