phrase searching

In searching, phrases must be surrounded by double quotes: "Richard of Tonbridge" will find all entries containing the name "Richard of Tonbridge". Properties are treated as words so a search involving one word and a property should be treated as a phrase.

Phrase searching may be combined with basic searches. For example, -Sheep "Richard of Tonbridge" translates as a search for all entries which contain the phrase "Richard of Tonbridge" but not the word sheep.

Phrases may contain alternatives. For example, "Richard of Tonbridge|Nottingham" translates as a search for all entries which contain either "Richard of Tonbridge" or "Richard of Nottingham". If two phrase are alternatives, they must each be in double inverted commas: "Richard of Tonbridge"|"Richard son of Gilbert"|"Richard son of Count Gilbert", for instance, would retrieve the 108 entries for Richard of Tonbridge, by whichever of these three aliases he was named.

Properties may be applied to phrases. For example, "\TEN holds \PLC" would find all holdings described by the formulae x holds y, ie Ralph holds Brighton. Similarly, "Richard of Tonbridge"=TW5 would find all entries where Richard of Tonbridge was subtenant of part of a manor (TW5 being the code for such a subtenant).

Inversion may be used in phrase searching. For example, "Richard of ^Tonbridge" would find entries where the phrase "Richard of" was followed by any word except Tonbridge.

For the meaning of the mnemonic codes, see Text coding and its links.