Welcome to AskNPAC

Search Option Function Example Restriction
By Keyword Search articles containing keyword(s). More than one keywords can be used, separated by operators: '&' or space (and), '|' (or), '-' (not). '(' and ')' are allowed. Other unary operators include: '$' (stemming from the same stem or root, e.g., '$go' will stem 'going', went', 'gone' etc), '?' (fuzzy search, with similar spelling). Keywords are case insensitive. For wild-card pattern matching, an underscore (_) in the word matches exactly any single character, and a percent sign (%) matches any zero or more characters. All keywords except those with wild-card will be highlighted in an article.
Keyword(s)Meaning
music sports 'music' AND 'sports'
music & sports 'music' AND 'sports'
music | sports 'music' OR 'sports'
music - sports 'music' BUT 'sports'
(music & sports) - football 'music' AND 'sports' BUT 'football'
$go 'go' or 'going' or 'went' or 'gone'
Keyword search in mutiple folders is supported in the form-based interface.
By Header List This option lists all articles in a folder one subset a page, starting from the most recent ones. Instead of sorting a list by date (default), you can also sort it by subject or by sender's email address by clicking the link on the table header. Keyword(s) will be ignored when this option is selected. When you first entered AskNPAC, a header list by date of a default folder is used to list the most recent articles. Header list of all or multiple folders is not supported.
By Date We use the syntax mm/dd/yy - mm/dd/yy to search the database based on dates, where the date on the left hand side of the hypen is the start of the search date, and the date on the right hand side is the end of the search date. If the date on the left hand side of the hyphen is missing then it will search from the creation date of the database. If the date on the right hand side of the hyphen is missing then it will search to the present date. You can search a particular folder or the whole database (all folders). If no keyword is entered, a header list by date will be used.
keyworddates searched
1/1/94 - 1/1/95from Jan. 1 1994 to Jan 1 1995
2/94 - 5/94from Feb 1. 1994 to May 31 1994
95 - 96from Jan 1, 1995 to Dec 31, 1996
96 the whole year of 1996
12/95the month of December 1995
6/15/95during the day of June 15, 1995
95 - from Jan 1, 1995 to the present day
6/95 - from June 1, 1995 to the present day
6/14/94 - from June 14, 1994 to the present day
- 95 from the creation date of the database to Dec 31, 1995
- 4/95 from the creation date of the database to April 31, 1995
- 2/28/94 from the creation date of the database to Feb 28, 1995
Search in multiple folders is not supported.
By Sender(Name) Search articles posted by senders whose names match the keyword. If no keyword is entered, a header list by sender will be used. Gang, _ang, %ang,g_%ng Only first keyword will be used in a search.
By Sender(Email) Search articles posted by senders whose email addresses match the keyword. If no keyword is entered, a header list by sender will be used. cheng@,edu,npac.syr,npac,syr,%syr% Only first keyword will be used in a search.
By URL This option searches articles containing URLs that match the keyword(s). Multiple keywords can be entered for articles containing all the keywords. If no keyword is entered, all URLs contained in the folder will be listed. asknpac, npac.syr, npac syr, edu index.html, edu:% none
Other Options If you are not satisfied with all the search options provided on the current page, you are welcome to explore other search interfaces we provided. Many fine tuned search criteria can be used for users looking for advanced search options. none

This system is developed by Gang Cheng and Yuping Zhu at Northeast Parallel Architectures Center, Syracuse University. Send comment to gcheng@npac.syr.edu. NPAC Disclaimer.