F.I.R.S.T. Tutorial

Chapter Three: Searching for Information Using a Computer
In this chapter: Defining databases; using search connectors and parentheses; creating search statements

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Introducing: the search connector OR

OR is another helpful search connector.

OR tells the computer that two terms are related to, but not dependent on, each other. You can have either one or the other, or both in your search results. No big deal.

OR helps you make your searches broader by allowing you to search for your keywords and their synonyms and related concepts at the same time. For example, muslim is a word that is related to the word Islam (a muslim is someone who believes in Islam). Look what happens when you search for both words using the search connector OR:

search results
islam 2,167
muslim 946
islam or muslim 2,680

OR does the opposite of AND: rather than narrowing the search like AND did, OR broadens a search, so we got a larger number of results by using OR. With the search "islam or muslim", in addition to all the material on islam, you now get all the results containing the term muslim as well.