Coveo Enterprise Search Online Help
What Search Operators Can Be Used in CES?
Search Interface > Performing a Search > What Search Operators Can Be Used in CES?

Glossary Item Box

Search operators allow to refine a search by specifying exactly what terms (words, numbers, etc.) should be present in the fields or content of a document. Coveo Enterprise Search (CES) recognizes the most common Boolean, date and relational operators as well as exact phrase queries. Boolean operators are used to join query terms (e.g. Coveo AND Search OR @systitle=CES); whereas, relational and date operators are used within field queries (e.g. @syssize> 1000).

Group

Operator

Description

Field Type

Example

Boolean

AND

The document must contain all terms (words, numbers, etc.) joined by AND. Their order is not important.

Note: By default, CES assumes the AND operator.

String

Coveo AND Search AND Help

Finds documents containing all three terms.

OR

The document must contain at least one of the terms (words, numbers, etc.) joined by OR.

String

Coveo OR Search

Finds documents containing Coveo or Search, or both.

NOT

The document must not contain the term (words, numbers, etc.) preceded by NOT.

The NOT operator is incompatible with the thesaurus (no synonym is searched for terms preceded by NOT).

String

Coveo NOT CAVS

Finds documents that do not contain CAVS but contain Coveo.

NEAR

The document must contain the two terms (words, numbers, etc.) joined by NEAR-no more than ten terms apart.

Note: It is possible to specify how close the terms must be (from 1 to 10 terms apart).

The NEAR operator is incompatible with the thesaurus (no synonym is searched for terms joined by NEAR).

String

Coveo NEAR:5 Search

Finds documents containing Coveo and Search no more than five terms apart.

Date

Now

The document must have been created or modified between now and the duration value.

Note: With the now operator, a duration value must be specified in seconds (s), minutes (m), hours (h), days (d), months (mo) or years (y).

See also: How to Query Date and Time Fields

Date

@sysdate<=now-12h

Finds documents created or modified at least 12 hours ago.

today

The document must have been created or modified today-or between today and the duration value.

See also: How to Query Date and Time Fields

Note: Contrarily to the now operator, the duration value-in seconds (s), minutes (m), hours (h), days (d), months (mo) or years (y)-is optional.

Date

@sysdate>=today-1mo

Finds documents created or modified within the last month.

@sysdate=today

Finds documents created or modified today.

yesterday

The document must have been created or modified yesterday-or between yesterday and the duration value.

Note: Contrarily to the now operator, the duration value-in seconds (s), minutes (m), hours (h), days (d), months (mo) or years (y)-is optional.

See also: How to Query Date and Time Fields

Date

@sysdate=yesterday

Finds documents created or modified yesterday.

@sysdate>yesterday+12h

Finds documents created or modified in the last twelve hours.

Mathematical

Includes

=

The field must contain the terms (words, numbers, etc.) following =.

Note: If several terms follow =, they do not need to be in contiguous or exact order.

String

Numeric

Date

@systitle=Coveo

Finds documents containing Coveo in their titles.

Is exactly

==

The field must contain the exact terms (words, numbers, etc.) as they appear following == (i.e. the terms must be in exact, contiguous order).

Note: No other term can be present in the field.

String

Numeric

Date

@systitle== "Coveo Enterprise Search"

Finds documents with this exact title only: Coveo Enterprise Search

Excludes

<>

The field must not contain the terms (words, numbers, etc.) following the <> operator.

String Numeric

Date

@systitle<> "Enterprise Search"

Finds documents that do not contain Enterprise Search in their titles.

Smaller than

<

The value contained in the field must be inferior to the value entered after <.

For dates, this means older than/before.

Note: File size is entered in bytes.

See also: How to Query Date and Time Fields

Numeric

Date

@syssize<50

Finds documents of 49 bytes or less.

@sysdate<today

Finds documents created or modified before today.

Greater than

>

The value contained in the field must be superior to the value entered after >.

For dates, this means more recent than/after.

Note: File size is entered in bytes.

See also: How to Query Date and Time Fields

Numeric

Date

@syssize>50

Finds documents of 51 bytes or more.

@sysdate>yesterday

Finds documents created or modified in the last 24 hours.

Smaller than or equal to

<=

The value contained in the field must be inferior or equal to the value entered after <=.

For dates, this means up to the time of reference.

Note: File size is entered in bytes.

See also: How to Query Date and Time Fields

Numeric

Date

@syssize<=50

Finds documents of 50 bytes or less.

@sysdate<=today

Finds documents created or modified today or in the preceding days.

Greater than or equal to

>=

The value contained in the field must be superior or equal to the value entered after >=.

For dates, this means at the time of reference and after.

Note: File size is entered in bytes.

See also: How to Query Date and Time Fields

Numeric

Date

@syssize>=50

Finds documents of 50 bytes or more.

@sysdate>=yesterday

Finds documents created in the last 48 hours.

Plus

+

The duration value-in seconds (s), minutes (m), hours (h), days (d), months (mo) or years (y)- is added to the date operator ( now, today, yesterday).

See also: How to Query Date and Time Fields

Date

@sysdate<yesterday+12h

Finds documents that were created or modified more than 12 hours ago.

Minus

-

The duration value-in seconds (s), minutes (m), hours (h), days (d), months (mo) or years (y)- is subtracted from the date operator ( now, today, yesterday).

See also: How to Query Date and Time Fields

Date

@sysdate=now-1mo

Finds documents that were created/modified a month ago.

Other

Comma ,

The field must contain at least one of the values isolated by parentheses and separated by commas (i.e. commas between parentheses (,) replace the OR operator in field queries).

String

Date

@syslanguage=(english, french, spanish)

Is the same as:

@syslanguage= english OR@syslanguage=french OR @syslanguage=spanish

Quotation marks

""

The document must contain the exact string comprised between the quotation marks (i.e. the terms must be in exact, contiguous order).

Note: Exact phrase queries apply to groups of terms (words, numbers, etc.), not single terms. Single terms-even if they are part of an exact phrase query-are always subject to stemming (if it is enabled).

See also: Administration Tool Help > What Is Stemming?

String

"Coveo Enterprise Search"

Finds documents containing this exact phrase.

See also: How to Query Date and Time Fields