The Analysis > Extended lexical search function, as with the simple search option, allows you to analyze your documents to a certain extent without having to have already done any coding. The searches can be carried out in:
- documents,
- memos, or
- the coded segments currently called up in the “Retrieved Segments” window.
The search can also be limited to those documents that are currently activated in the “Document Browser.”
The dialog is separated into several parts. At first you can enter search items in the text fields
- All these search strings (AND combination)
- Any of these search strings (OR combination)
- None of these search strings (search strings for exclusion)
Please note, that you can separate different search strings with a space. If you want to enter a comined search string you can use quotation marks like “Mahatma Gandhi” around your search string. Question mark “?” and asterisk “*” work as placeholders for a single character or for one or more charaters. Use <() for word begin and ()> for word end, <(inter) will find “interest” and “interesting”, but not “winter,” and (ks)> will find “banks” and “thanks”, but not “bankside.”
In the upper right part of the dialog you can define, in which part of the project MAXQDA will search an in the options on the right you can define in which context the search items have to exist.
All three search entries will be combined with AND. In the screen above MAXQDA will present all sentences in which “climate” and “energy” exist together, but not “politics.”
