Command Line Search is designed to help you build a precise search using operators to combine different fields that target your search terms. ProQuest will only search the fields you specify. 

Alternatively, you can simply search on a word or phrase.

Operators, fields, and special characters
Adding thesaurus terms
Keep in mind
Recent searches and sets in ProQuest Dialog

Command line searching is useful if you want to quickly combine fields within a search without filling in each of the fields individually, or when you need to find information in one field, but NOT in another.

To perform a command line search, you can prefix your term(s) with field name abbreviations and enter them directly into the search box. For example: AU(Miller) and PUB(physiol*).

Alternatively:

1. Click Add search fields.
2. Click the arrow next to the Search fields drop-down and choose a field code.
3. If you want to combine fields with Boolean operators, click the arrow next to the Operators list and choose the required operator.
4. Click Add to form.
5. Enter your search term(s) in the brackets for each field.

 At the bottom of the page, beneath the search box, are two tabs:

• Search options — The default tab view, provides date range and other search options as well as results display options.
• Recent searches — Lists the searches you’ve run during your current ProQuest Dialog session.
  

Running an entire search strategy

Command Line Search supports entering and running a multi-set search strategy.

1. Enter or paste your strategy in the box.
   If you’re typing your sets in the box, make sure to end each set and start a new line—and a new set—by pressing Enter or Shift+Enter. If you’re entering a very long set, just keep typing; the set will wrap to a new line as necessary.
2. Click Search. Each set will run and the Results page will display, showing results for the last search in your strategy. Each set is added sequentially to the Recent Searches page. The number of results retrieved by each set are displayed.
   

Operators, fields, and special characters

Search fields

Look up links

For some fields included in the Search fields drop-list, you can browse—using Look up links—a list of all available terms, and select one or more to add to your search.

Field codes

Field codes (sometimes called mnemonics), provide a shorthand alternative for search field names.

ProQuest will interpret both the field name and its corresponding code the same.

For example:
author(Smith)
is the same as:
AU(Smith)

 

Operators

Operator	Description	Example
AND	Look for documents that contain all of your words or phrases. Use AND to narrow your search and get fewer results.	food AND nutrition
OR	Look for documents that contain any of your words or phrases. Use OR to broaden your search and get more results.	food OR nutrition
NOT	Look for documents that contain one of your search terms, but not the other.	nursing NOT shortage
NEAR/n or N/n	Look for documents that contain two search terms, in any order, within a specified number of words apart.  Replace ‘n’ with a number. In the example, 3 means within 3 words.	nursing NEAR/3 education media N/3 women
PRE/n or P/n	Look for documents that contain one search term that appears within a specified number of words before a second term. Replace ‘n’ with a number.  In the example, 4 means the first term precedes the second term by 4 or fewer words.	nursing PRE/4 education shares P/4 technologies
EXACT or X	Look for your exact search term in its entirety. Used primarily for searching specific fields, like Subject. For instance, a search on su.exact("higher education"), will return documents with a subject term of "higher education", but not documents with a subject term of "higher education funding".	SU.EXACT("higher education") SU.X("higher education")
LNK	Link a descriptor term to a Subheading (qualifier) by selecting the proper qualifier in the Thesaurus window, or by using the LNK (or --) in Basic, Advanced or Command Line Search. Also, link two related data elements together, to ensure proper specificity in your search.	MESH(descriptor LNK qualifier) MESH(aspirin LNK "adverse effects") MESH(aspirin -- "adverse effects")   IND("dry eye") and RG(Canada) will retrieve documents where a drug has been indicated for treatment of dry eye in the region of Canada.

 

Special characters for special purposes

These characters can come in handy when you're looking for documents that contain words that can be spelled different ways, such as color or colour, or words that begin with the same character string, such as nursed or nursing.

Character	Description	Example
?	Wildcard character - used to replace any single character, either inside or at the right end of a word. Multiple wildcards can be used to represent multiple characters.	nurse? Finds: nurses, nursed sm?th Finds: smith and smyth ad??? Finds: added, adult, adopt
*	Truncation character (*) - one * for many characters. Use the truncation character at the beginning (left-hand truncation), the end (right-hand truncation), or in the middle of search terms. To specify a specific upper limit for term expansion, use term[*N]. The default range is 0-10 characters.	nurse* Finds: nurse, nurses, nursed colo*r Finds: colour, color *old Finds: told, household, bold [*5]beat Finds: upbeat, downbeat, offbeat, heartbeat
$n or [*n]	$n and [*n] are equivalent operators used to denote up to how many characters you want to truncate.	nutr$5, nutr[*5] Finds: nutrition, nutrient, nutrients
<	Less than. Used for numeric fields like publication year.	YR(<2005)
>	Greater than. Used for numeric fields like publication year.	YR(>2005)
<=	Less than or equal to. Used for numeric fields like publication year.	YR(<=2005)
>=	Greater than or equal to. Used for numeric fields like publication year.	YR(>=2005)
-	Use a hyphen to indicate a range when searching numerical fields, such as Publication date.	YR(2005-2008)

Adding thesaurus terms

You can use the thesauri to find broader and/or narrower related terms to add to your search.

Note that the thesauri that you see on the Thesaurus List screen will depend on your subscription and on the database(s) you have selected; also, some thesauri only apply to particular databases.

Recent searches and sets in ProQuest Dialog

You can work with recent searches and sets on Command Line Search in the same way as on Advanced Search. You can also combine sets using operators - see our Search Tips page for more details.

Keep in mind

• Command line searches—including any operators or search field codes you include—are case-insensitive.  
• Your administrator can specify whether ProQuest should look for instances of your search terms everywhere including the full text, or everywhere except the full text. The default setting includes full text; if your administrator has changed this setting, the search page will display a message indicating this. Regardless of which option has been set, you can still use the full text checkbox on the search screen to retrieve documents with full text; the administrator setting just controls where ProQuest will look for your search terms.
• To limit your search according to when a particular item was last updated by the content publisher, use the Last updated dropdown menu. For example, you can target content that was last updated over a specific date range, such as the last two years, or before a specific year.
• You can use wildcard characters and truncation characters in your search.
• You can use command line syntax in any search box in ProQuest that does not target a specific search field. For example:
  • The Basic Search box
  • The search box at top of a Search Results page
  • The Advanced Search and Data & Reports pages when the default All fields + text is selected