Using Parentheses in a Terms & Connectors Search

The information in this article applies to the following LexisNexis^® products and services: Lexis+^®, Lexis^®, Nexis^®
 

Parentheses to group terms in searches

Use parentheses to construct a terms & connectors search so the service reads and processes your search as you intended by overriding the normal priority of the connectors. Terms in parentheses are processed first in the search and the results of that search is then processed with the rest of your terms using the normal priority of the connectors.

Parentheses are particularly important when using the or connector with a w/n connector. For example, to find documents that involve William Jones or Mary Wilson and you want to use a w/n connector to account for a possible middle name or initial, enter:

(william /2 jones) or (mary /2 wilson)

Parentheses ensure that you find Jones within two words of William instead of finding Jones or Mary within two words of William.

For more information about the connector priority, see the Connector Priority - Order of Operators section of Search Connectors.
 

Parentheses around a subsection of a statute, regulation or rule in the initial search

Punctuation surrounding numbers or numbers and letters identifies that phrase as part of a citation in natural language and terms & connectors and keeps that phrase intact. While the service keeps the numbers in the same order, the intervening punctuation can differ. For example, running the following search terms 142.1(a) finds the following variations:

• 142.1(a)
• 142, 1a
• 142, § 1,a
• 142, § 1.A
• 142(1)(a)
• 142:1.A

This applies to both the initial search as well as Search Within Results.