CD ASIA ONLINE

(This can also be found when you click the HELP button at the upper right hand corner when you’re logged in.)
How to search

You could search for the documents that you want by using the search query box on the left side of the screen. The
search box is divided into fields which correspond to the document's reference number, date, title, section, text, and
year.

Simple Searches

You could search for the documents that you want by using the search query box on the left side of the screen. The
search box is divided into fields which corresponds to the document's reference number, date, title, syllabus, and
ponente.

Advanced Search Techniques

Boolean Search – A method that allows the use of operators and special characters to formulate a search parameter.
Notice that the Boolean operators should be written in upper-case.

Operators

Operator Function Example Results

AND Will look for the search terms together Murder AND homicide All documents which
has the words "murder"
and "homicide"
OR Will look for the search terms alternately Murder OR homicide All documents which
has either one of the
words "murder" or
"homicide"
NOT Will exclude the search terms after the Murder NOT homicide All documents which
operator has the word "murder"
but not containing the
word "homicide"

Special Characters

Function Characters Action Results

Exact Phrase Search “katarungang Enclose two or more words in The exact phrase contained within the
pambarangay “ double quotes double quotes shall be captured
Wildcard search ? Use to replace one character The number of wildcards will replace the
letters in the word/s.
Word extender * Use at the end of string of charactersElect* will result in election, elects,
or word to extend elected, electorate, electrical
Alternate word | Use to look for alternate search Results would contain the different words
search words used alternately, e.g.
“elected|suspended|assigned" official
would find elected official, suspended
official, and assigned official. Take note of
the double quotes in the query.
Grouping Search () The parentheses can be used to A search for (murder OR homicide) AND
Terms group search words to form sub- kidnapping will look alternately for murder
queries within the search parameter AND kidnapping or the terms homicide
AND kidnapping
Proximity Search

You may look for search words within a specific number of words of each other through proximity searching. Enclose the
words in double quotes, put the tilde (~) symbol and indicate a number which would represent the maximum number of
words the words in quotes will be separated from each other. For example, to search for "universal", "human" and
"rights" within 10 words of each other in a document, use the search parameter:

"universal human rights"~10

Boosting a Term

The search engine provides the relevance level of matching documents based on the terms found. To boost a term, use
the caret "^" symbol with a boost factor (a number) at the end of the term you are searching. The higher the boost
factor, the more relevant the term will be.

To search for "censorship" and "human rights" but attaching more importance to the word "censorship", enter:

censorship^10 AND "human rights"

Fuzzy search

The search engine supports fuzzy searches based on the Levenshtein Distance, or Edit Distance algorithm. This becomes
particularly useful when you are unsure of the exact spelling of a word or name. To do a fuzzy search, use the tilde "~"
symbol at the end of a single-word term. For example, to search for a term similar in spelling to "sarrah", use the fuzzy
search:

sarrah~

This will also return documents containing the words "sarrah", "sarah", and "sarao"

Shorthands
Search queries may also contain shorthands to help you find documents conveniently. Below is a list of abbreviations
you can use where xxxx is the reference number. These shorthands will also work in lower case.
 RA xxxx - Republic Act xxxx  LOI xxxx - Letters of Instructions No. xxxx
 CA xxxx - Commonwealth Act xxxx  PD xxxx - Presidential Decree No. xxxx
 EO xxxx - Executive Order No. xxxx  CA xxxx - Commonwealth Act No. xxxx
 BP xxxx - Batas Pambansa Blg. xxxx  MO xxxx - Memorandum Order No. xxxx
 AO xxxx - Administrative Order No. xxxx
Various acronyms and shorthands are also recognized by CD Asia Online. These list is continually being updated to
enhance your search experience.

A sample of these shorthands that you could use are listed below:

 RTC - Regional Trial Court  COMELEC - Commission on Elections

 CA - Court of Appeals  NLRC - National Labor Relations Commission
 IAC - Intermediate Appellate Court  v - vs.
 sps. - spouses  Inc. - Incorporated