### IBM C and C++ Compilers Search Help

IBM C and C++ Compilers help uses an advanced, full-text search engine that returns HTML search "hits" based on your search request.

To find information you're looking for:

1. Type the word or phrase you're searching for into the text area.
2. Click the Search button.
3. Click the links on the Search Results page.
4. Click the Back button on your browser to return to the search form. Now you can refine your search, or click Clear to start a new search.

To get more precise search results, you can modify the search defaults. You can mix the following options together to get precisely the information you need.

To refine your searches by including or excluding information types:

1. To restrict your search to specific information types (such as Examples or Tasks) select those types by clicking them. On Windows, use CTRL-click to select non-adjacent items. Drag your mouse, or use SHIFT-click, to select adjacent items.
2. Click the Search button.

By default, all infomation types except for user interface (F1) help are selected when you search. Note that at least one type is always selected.

To narrow your searches by including or excluding terms:

1. Type the terms you're searching for into the text area. Precede terms that must be included in the results with a plus sign (+) and precede terms that must be excluded from the results with a minus sign (-).
2. If you want to narrow your search further, add additional terms, phrases, or exact phrases. You can precede these by plus or minus signs, too.
3. Click the Search button.

By default, every term you enter into the text area can be included in the search results (logical OR). For example, if you enter the terms DB2 ODBC, search will return documents that contain either DB2 or ODBC, or both. If you want all the search results to include ODBC, then the default search is too wide.

To narrow your search results in a multi-term search, you can explicitly include or exclude terms from the results. To make certain that terms are included in a multi-term search, type a plus sign (+) next to them. Type a minus sign (-) next to terms you don't want to appear in your search results. For example, if you type +DB2 +ODBC, then search will return only documents that mention both DB2 and ODBC (logical AND). If you type +DB2 -ODBC, then search will return the set of documents that mention DB2 but don't have any mention of ODBC (logical NOT).

The search tool will not return results for a search that only includes minus terms. You must have at least one term that is not preceded by a minus sign.

To narrow your searches by looking for an exact phrase:

1. Precede the first phrase with a plus sign (+), then enter the exact phrase with quotation marks around it.
2. If you want to further narrow your search, add additional terms, phrases or exact phrases. You can precede these by plus or minus signs, too.
3. Click the Search button.

For example, if you type +"mouse pointer", then only documents that contain the exact phrase will be returned. If you type +"mouse pointer" -"system pointer", then search will return all documents that include the exact phrase "mouse pointer" but do not include the exact phrase "system pointer".

If you type "mouse pointer" without the plus sign, then the search will return documents that include either the term mouse or the term pointer, or both (the quotation marks are ignored). In addition, the search tool will not return results for a search that only includes minus terms. You must have at least one term that is not preceded by a minus sign.

To widen complex searches with character wildcards
You can use character wildcards as placeholders to widen your searches in any additional term or exact phrase.

1. Type a term or phrase to begin your search.
2. Qualify the initial term with other terms or phrases. These can include a ? character as a placeholder for a single character, or a * character as a placeholder for any number of characters.
3. Click the Search button.

For example, if you search for +database -map*, then search will return all documents containing database but not containing the terms map, mapped, maps, mapping or mappings.

To refine your searches by including fuzzy or exact matches:

1. Select "Show fuzzy word matches" to have search use "word stemming" (deriving root search terms from verb and nominal forms of a term) to determine a match. For example, a fuzzy search on the term creating will return documents containing create, creates, created, and creating.
2. For more precision over matches, select "Show exact word matches".
3. Click the Search button.

By default, search uses fuzzy word matches to determine a match for terms.

To see more the search results:
Select the number of documents your search will return, up to a maximum of 250.