What are Boolean operators?

Boolean operators are specific words (AND, OR, and NOT) used to combine or exclude keywords to provide more relevant and focused search queries.

OR operator

The OR operator expands your search query by returning all hits including any or all of your search terms. This way you can, for instance, search for synonyms to your concept, which will broaden your result.

If you were interested in information that is related to either deposits or loans, you could search the following.

You can also search for lists of series key by including an OR operator between each series key. For example you could search the following.

AND operator

The AND operator narrows your search query by only returning hits that include all your search terms. This way you can link different concepts together.

If you were interested in information containing all three terms: banks and deposits, you could search the following.

NOT operator

The NOT operator narrows your search query by omitting any result that includes a specific search term. This way you can modify and narrow your search query. By default, if there is no logical operator between two search terms, an AND operator is applied.

If you were interested in information related to inflation but did not want anything to do with industrial producer prices, you could search the following.

Quotation marks

You can search for an exact match by using quotation marks around any search query made up of two or more words; the search will only look for those words in that particular order.

Without quotation marks your search will include all (AND operator) the words you typed, though not necessarily in the order you imputed them.