Regular expressions
The Princeton Geniza Project database allows for search expressions containing certain 'regular expressions'. Regular expressions are codes that can be inserted in search queries to match patterns of text.
| ^string | Matches the text at the beginning of the string |
| string$ | Matches the text at the end of the string |
| . | Matches any single character (including special characters) |
| a* | Matches the sequence of zero or more of the specified character |
| a+ | Matches the sequence of one or more of the specified character |
| a? | Matches zero or one occurrence of the specified character |
| abc|def | | Matches either one of the specified strings
| [abc] | Matches any one of the specified characters |
Boolean Search
The Princeton Geniza Project database uses a boolean full-text search. This type of search allows users to combine keywords with operators to refine searches. Possible operators and examples of their use:
| מולאנא מולאי | Search for rows that contain either of two words by simply typing them consecutively. In this case, the search will find documents that contain either מולאי or מולאנא. |
| כתאבי +מולאי+ | Use a + sign before word to search for rows that contain all of them (in this case the words כתאבי and מולאי) |
כתאבי AND מולאי
כתאבי OR מולאי | The keyword AND indicates that both search terms must be present in the results. OR matches either search term. |
| כתאב –כתאבה |
Use a - sign to exclude a term from your results (in this case, the search will include כתאב but exclude כתאבה) |
*כתאב
?כתאב |
Use an asterisk or a question mark as a wildcard. An asterix matches any number of characters. A question mark matches any single character |
T-S 12.587
Legal document. In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan? Location: Fustat. Dated: First decade of Tammuz 1489 Seleucid, which is June 1178 CE. Abū l-Faraj b. Ḥotam ha-Levi (known as 'al-Masos') promises to pay to Abū l-Barakāt b. Abū l-Faḍl al-Quṣayyir a sum of money, when 50 ṭamāwiyā of wine sold to the letter by the former's son (who meanwhile had left for Aden) had been found to be bad. On verso the payments actually made are recorded (signed by Shemuel b. Yiṣ[ḥaq?] and Yeshuʿa b. Tiqva). (Information from Goitein's index card.)
