Search the Archive Using the Advanced Query Language
The Advanced Query Language search mode can be used to submit complex searches, such as those that:
- Use specific terms, such as all messages that include the phrase
Quarterly Report. - Use comparisons, such as all messages sent between December 25 and August 1st, or all messages greater than 4 KB but less than 8 KB.
- Use the Boolean operators
AND,OR, andNOTto refine searches, such as messages from bob@genericorp.comANDthat are smaller than 4 KB. - Search for terms in proximity to other terms, such as terms that appear within four words of each other in a specified order.
- Edit searches generated in the Query Builder tab.
To build an Advanced Query Language Query:
NOTE
In Internet Explorer, the URL length limit of 2083 characters can cause errors when executing a long discovery query. If a query URL exceeds the character limit, Internet Explorer displays an error message and the query does not execute.
- Click the Advanced Query Language tab. The Advanced Query Language search pane appears.
The Advanced Query Builder
Reviewer Groups
- If you are part of more than one Reviewer Group, select the Reviewer Group scope from the Reviewer Group drop-down list.
Selecting the reviewer group
- The label of the drop-down is the currently selected Reviewer Group. Only messages that match the search criteria and are within the scope of the selected Review Group will be displayed.
- Use the Search Context drop-down to select the portion of the message that is to be searched for this query. The selections are: Entire Message, Do Not Search Attachments or Search Attachments Only.
Defining the Search Context
- Select a search language from the Search Language drop-down menu. The label of the drop-down is the currently selected language. Choosing a search language limits the search to emails identified as belonging to that language, plus all the language-unidentified emails. It also changes the stop word behavior (see Stop Words). To search all emails in the archive, select
Any.
- Type your Query Language search string into the Advanced Query Language text field. Use the syntax, fields, and options described in Query Language Fields.
- Execute the search by either clicking the Search button or press the Enter key.
- To save the query for future execution, click the Save button. See Saved Searches for more information.
- The results of your search are displayed in the list below the search boxes.
Notes about the advanced query language:
- The Advanced Query Language field does not implement Stemming. You must use the wildcard character (
*) to expand Query Language searches beyond the search strings you enter. For example, to search for all the terms (project,projected,projecting,projector, orprojects) in the message subject, addsubject:“project*”to your query. - If an unquoted string is entered into the Advanced Query Language box without other syntax, the search engine implements a “Google style” search, instead of giving a syntax error. This means the result set includes documents which match all terms as well as documents which match some of the terms, ranked by relevance. Putting double quotes around the query causes it to be a phrase match rather than a “Google style” match.
When your results list contains all the messages you need, refer to the following sections for additional actions you can perform on the messages returned by the search:
- To create a Retention Hold, see Retention Holds.
- To create a Discovery Archive, see Message Archives.