The following table illustrates several example queries. The examples for the short form of Dialect 2 generally apply to Dialect 1 with the exception of the incompatibilities noted in Incompatibilities of Dialect 2 with Dialect 1.
| Example | Version | Results |
|---|
| {prop name=Contents} apple tree {/prop} | Dialect 2 | Documents with the phrase apple tree. |
| {phrase} apple tree {/phrase} | Dialect 2 | Documents with the phrase apple tree. |
| "apple tree" | Dialect 2, short form | Documents with the phrase apple tree. |
| apple tree | Dialect 2, short form | Documents with either or both of the words apple and tree. |
| apple tree | Dialect 1 | Documents with the phrase apple tree. |
| apple {near dist=50, unit=word} tree | Dialect 2 | Documents with the words apple and tree within 50 words of each other. |
| Microsoft near release and {prop name=rank} > 0 | Dialect 2 | Documents containing the words Microsoft and release occurring near each other. |
| Microsoft ~ release & @rank > 0 | Dialect 2, short form, or Dialect 1 | Documents containing the words Microsoft and release occurring near each other. |
| $contents Why is the sky blue? | Dialect 2, short form, or Dialect 1 | Documents that match the free-text query (which are about the blue sky). |
| @size > 1000000 & < 2000000 | Dialect 2, short form, or Dialect 1 | Documents larger than 1 million bytes but smaller than 2 million bytes. |
| {prop name=size} > 1000000 & < 2000000 | Dialect 2 | Documents larger than 1 million bytes but smaller than 2 million bytes. |
| @attrib ^s 32 | Dialect 2, short form, or Dialect 1 | Documents with the archive attribute bit on. |
| @all Excel & ( @size > 1000 & < 100000 ) & Microsoft | Dialect 2, short form, or Dialect 1 | Documents containing the words Excel and Microsoft that are between 1,000 and 100,000 bytes in size. |
| {prop name=all} Excel and {prop name=size} > 1000 and < 100000 ) {/prop} and Microsoft | Dialect 2 | Documents containing the words Excel and Microsoft that are between 1,000 and 100,000 bytes in size. |
| @Write > -2d | Dialect 2, short form, or Dialect 1 | All documents changed within the last two days. |
| @Write > 2000-1-1 | Dialect 2, short form, or Dialect 1 | All documents on or after the year 2000. |
| @filename = *.avi | Dialect 2, short form, or Dialect 1 | Video files. The = indicates the query contains an MS-DOS/Windows wildcard character. |
| #filename *.avi | Dialect 2, short form, or Dialect 1 | Video files. The # prefix indicates the query contains a regular expression. |
| #filename *.|(do?|,xl?|,p?t|,mdb|) | Dialect 2, short form, or Dialect 1 | Microsoft Office documents. |
| {prop name=filename} {regex}*.|(do?|,xl?|,p?t|,mdb|){/regex} | Dialect 2 | Microsoft Office documents. |
| #path "*\|[^\]|[14,|}\*" | Dialect 2, short form, or Dialect 1 | Paths with a directory component containing fourteen or more characters. |
| {prop name=path}{regex}"*\|[^\]|[14,|}\*"{/regex} | Dialect 2 | Paths with a directory component containing fourteen or more characters. |
| {generate method=prefix} dog {/generate} | Dialect 2 | All words beginning with dog: For example, dog, dogs, doghouse, dogma. |
| @contents BackOffice &! #vpath *\_vti_* | Dialect 2, short form, or Dialect 1 | Documents containing the word BackOffice, but which are not in Microsoft FrontPage® hidden directories. Microsoft BackOffice® is a family of server software, designed to integrate various computer functions for businesses. |
| {prop name=contents} BackOffice AND NOT {prop name=vpath}{regex}*\_vti_*{/regex} | Dialect 2 | Documents containing the word BackOffice, but which are not in Microsoft FrontPage hidden directories. |
SELECT * FROM FILEINFO
WHERE size > 1000000 | SQL | Documents larger than 1 million bytes. |
SELECT FileName FROM SCOPE()
WHERE CONTAINS ('search')
AND NOT CONTAINS ('slow') | SQL | Documents with the phrase search but not the phrase slow. |
SELECT DocAuthor, DocTitle
FROM SCOPE()
WHERE CONTAINS(DocAuthor,
'smith') | SQL | Documents written by Smith. |
...WHERE CONTAINS(DocSubject,
'"Microsoft"
AND "Indexing"
NEAR "Service"') | SQL | Documents containing the words Microsoft and Indexing near the word Service. |