Search:

Nigeria Directory Online service is centred on search. Like all search engines, sieving through a search outcome could be a strenuous task and time consuming if appropriate search operators and filters are not applied.

To derive the optimum result, it is important that you understand how this search engine works. Furthermore, you need to know which search tool (simple search depicted Figure 1 or advanced search shown in figure 2) to use in order to obtain desired outcome.

Figure 1 – simple search

Figure 2 – advanced search

How to search:

1. To search, enter string of characters in the form of a substring, word, phrase, quoted keywords, etc as search criteria. This may also include matching pattern, boolean, and or wildcard operators.
2. If you are using advanced search, select appropriate filter (s) and enter filter key words. Remember that when a filter is checked, it has the same effect as an AND operator when unchecked, it indicates an OR operator.
3. A result display row is 10 by default but this number can be changed to 25 or 100 on the advanced search.
4. Click on search button to perform a search.

Searching tips

1. Criteria could be a substring, a word or a phrase and may contain other operators like "AND", "OR", "NEAR", etc.


2. “*” or blank entry in the search criteria field indicates “ALL”, that is indexed pages within the service, data in the database, etc.


3. Use wildcard, prefix or postfix to broaden search. For example, type key* to find key, keying, keyhole, keyboard, and so on.


4. Search for words close to each other with the keyword NEAR, rather than AND. For example, system AND manager and system NEAR manager, will look for the words system and manager on the same page. But with NEAR, the returned pages are ranked in order of proximity: The closer together the words are, the higher the rank of that page.


5. Refine search queries with the Boolean operators, for example AND NOT to exclude or include keywords. Example, if you want to find all instances of surfing but not Net, type the following: surfing AND NOT Net


6. Find all instances of either one word or another or both with the OR operator without indicating "OR" in the query string. For example: Training Truism Travel


7. Enclose a phrase in a quotation to find an exact phrase. For instance: "3 Obafemi Awolowo Way"


8. Enter substring, keyword, phrase in any of the filters (Establishment name, City/state, Operators, etc) to narrow search results. For example in City/state filter, you can enter “*un” and check the “AND” operator to ensure that search result matchesoutcome that includes "Osun” and “Ogun” states and your search criteria.

Similarities between the simple and advanced search

1. Both search tools uses all known Boolean, Matching pattern and Wildcard operators or a combination of such. Refer to a discussion on Boolean, Matching pattern and Wildcard operators for further details.
   
2. Both search the same data source - file system and database.

Difference between the simple and advanced search
The essential difference between the simple and advanced search is that the advanced search has filters that can directly be applied to produce intended result.

In summary, advanced search is simpler to use because filters can easily be applied to achieve desired outcome. However, a user that is very knowledgeable on using Boolean, Matching pattern and Wildcard operators can achieve the same resultant outcome with simple search.

Boolean, Matching pattern and Wildcard operators
This discussion would focus on commonly used patterns and operators rather than a detailed discussion on patterns and operators as it pattern to search engines.

Wildcard operators:

S/N	Operator	Usage
1	?	Matches any single alphanumeric character
2	*	Matches zero or more alphanumeric characters
3		Same as *
4	[]	Matches one of characters contained between the brackets
5	^	When used inside a square brackets, indicates a match should be made for any character not contained in the brackets.

Boolean operators:

S/N	Operator	Usage
1	AND	Matches words on both sides of the operators
2	OR	Matches word on either side of the operators
3	NOT	Match should not include word indicated on the right side of the operator.

Matching pattern:
Matching pattern is a combination of substring or key word and wildcard operator(s). Example: Mul* - matches multi, mulk, etc.