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Basic Boolean Logic

How to utilize basic Boolean logic within Crelate using our Search feature.

Ian Remington avatar
Written by Ian Remington
Updated over 2 weeks ago

Crelate's search supports the use of Boolean logic. This article will discuss some of the primary concepts of Boolean to help set an order of operations and connect search terms through the use of:

Key Search Operators

Boolean operators help to focus your search primarily when searching through multiple terms. A few key operators are:

  • And ( + )

  • Or ( | )

  • And Not ( - )

**Please Note** Crelate does not require the use of capital letters when using And | Or | And Not. Also, when using the "-" symbol, it must be connected to the search term that should be excluded from the results. For example, "dog -cat" will search "dog and not cat", whereas "dog - cat" will search for dog or cat".

The logic can help to connect these terms together and more narrowly focus or expand the listed results. In the example below, the search will render a result for any of the listed words. That means, if a contact has sales or manager listed on their resume (but not reseller) that is still enough to satisfy the search.

You can produce this same search result by using the symbols for ( | ) and ( - ), where the

( | ) would indicate the "or" and ( - ) would indicate "and not".

Alternatively, if "and" were to be used, the contact must return both key words in order to satisfy the search.

You can accomplish this same search by using ( + ) for "and" instead.

Quotations

Another main component of your search in Crelate is the use of quotations. Quotations will allow you to emphasize and exact match for keyword searches. IE. Sales Manager vs "Sales Manager"

  • Sales Manager without quotes will render results for BOTH keywords of sales and manager. As a result, this will likely be a long list.

  • "Sales Manager" when put in quotations will only return results in which those terms are used in conjunction with one another and as a result, will return fewer results.

Parenthesis

The last key point focused in this article is the use of parenthesis. Parenthesis can help to group terms together to further define your logic. For instance, in the example below, we're telling Crelate to return contacts that have either the word sales OR the word marketing on their resume. Only 1 of those 2 words is enough to satisfy the first requirement. However, the next portion, separated by the word OR, states that if the contact has the word reseller AND director that can ultimately supersede the necessity of the first portion of our statement (ie. the need for sales OR marketing). Meaning we have actually expanded our results and stated that even if a contact does not have sales OR marketing but they do have both reseller AND director, they will return in our results.

Wildcards

The use of wildcard searches can help match all words that start with the term before the asterisks. For instance, in the example below, we are telling Crelate to return all matches where the word starts with "Develop".

What's Next?

Looking for more search training and more advanced steps? Take a look at our content below!

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