Search Hints
- The search terms are not case sensitive. For example, typing unc or UNC will yield the same results.
- Surrounding portions of your search with double quotes will cause the search to only return results that contain the exact phrase inside the quotes. So searching for "data system" with quotes around it would only return entries with the words african and studies immediately next to eachother, whereas searching for data system without quotes would return any entry with the words african and studies anywhere in the title or description.
- The button selection below the search term box, labeled "contains" or "starts with" will yield different results. For example, typing "unc" with the "contains" button selected will search and return results that contain the letters "unc" anywhere in the title or description, such as "lunch" and "uncle". However, if the "starts with" button is selected, the search engine would then return results in which the letters "unc" begin a word, such as "uncle" or "unclear".
- When performing a truncated search, simply entering the beginning of a word will suffice; you do not need to use a wildcard character such as an asterisk. For example, entering "comp" will return results including compu, computer, computing, computation,etc.
- You must not use boolean operators, or any other unconventional characters with the Stats DataFinder search feature! Unconventional characters, such as: ; , * , > , < , etc. will be filtered out of your search.
- Because some items span multiple topics, it is possible that your search may return duplicate results. The associated link, however, will be identical.
Please send questions and comments to Michele Hayslett
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URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/reference/datafind/?display=print_file&file=search_hints
This page was last updated Friday, November 13, 2009.
