Boolean operators allow conditional search results

  • Release version: Washingtondc
  • Updated February 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Boolean Operators Allow Conditional Search Results

    Boolean operators enhance global text searches in ServiceNow by allowing complex search criteria. The operators AND, OR, and NOT can be utilized across various search interfaces, including the Global text search field, Knowledge Base search, and List search for text. Note that these operators are case-sensitive, meaning that only uppercase versions will be recognized as operators.

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    Key Features

    • OR Operator: Finds documents with any of the specified search terms. For example, "email password" OR email retrieves documents containing either term.
    • AND Operator: Ensures all specified terms are present in the documents. For instance, searching "CPU load" AND "10 minutes" finds documents containing both phrases.
    • NOT Operator: Excludes documents with specified terms. For example, "CPU load" NOT "10 minutes" will return documents containing "CPU load" but exclude those with "10 minutes."

    Note that the Zing search engine defaults to using the AND operator between terms unless specified otherwise. Administrators can modify search behaviors through system properties.

    Key Outcomes

    By utilizing Boolean operators, ServiceNow customers can refine their searches to yield more precise results, improving the efficiency of information retrieval within the platform. Understanding how to effectively use these operators will help in narrowing down records and enhancing the search experience.

    Construct complex searches using Boolean AND, OR, and NOT operators in global text searches.

    You can use Boolean operators in all global text search interfaces:
    • Global text search field
    • Knowledge Base search
    • List search for text
    Note:
    Boolean operators are case-sensitive. As an example, the system recognizes OR as a Boolean operator, but treats Or and or as regular search terms.
    Table 1. Boolean operators
    Operator Description
    OR or vertical bar symbol (|)

    Finds a match if any of the search terms exist in a document (a union of sets). For example, to find documents that contain either email password or just email, you can search for "email password" OR email or "email password"|email.

    Using the .or. operator, which the system uses when you create OR condition groups for fields other than Keywords with the condition builder, can produce different results. For example, this filter searches for records with short descriptions containing SSO and then searches separately for records with short descriptions containing SAML:
    Figure 1. Searching with the filter choice lists
    Searching with the filter choice lists.
    Note:
    By design, you can only have one Keywords filter condition per condition set. If you select the Keywords field in a filter choice list, the OR button for that filter condition becomes unavailable. Similarly, if you construct an OR filter condition, the Keywords field becomes unavailable in the filter choice lists.
    AND

    Finds a match if all search terms exist in a document (an intersection of sets). For example, to find documents that contain both "CPU load" and "10 minutes", search for "CPU load" AND "10 minutes"

    By default, Zing applies an AND operator between all search terms not separated by OR or NOT operators. For example, if you enter email server down as your search terms, the system searches for email AND server AND down.
    Note:
    For Knowledge Base searches, if the default AND search returns poor results, the search is automatically re-run with the OR operator. Administrators can configure the knowledge base search to always use OR by modifying the glide.knowman.search.operator system property.
    NOT, minus (-), or exclamation point (!)

    Excludes documents that contain the search term after the NOT operator (a difference of sets). For example, to find documents that contain "CPU load" but not "10 minutes", you can search for "CPU load" NOT "10 minutes" or "CPU load" -"10 minutes" or "CPU load" !"10 minutes".

    NOT must be a stand-alone term in your search. For example, atom NOT ion excludes the term ion, but NOTION searches for the term notion.

    The minus and exclamation point symbols must immediately precede the search term that you want to exclude. For example, a search for email !Joe excludes Joe but a search for email ! Joe includes Joe.

    You can't use the NOT operator to exclude all terms in your search. For example, the following search returns no results: NOT "10 minutes".