A couple of recent user forum threads have centered around a common mistake made by those beginning to use more advanced search commands and symbols: namely, they use the AND command when they should use the At symbol (@).
What’s the difference? Put simply, the AND command searches for two separate items which appear together in the same verse (or sentence, paragraph, chapter, etc.). The At symbol, on the other hand, lets you look for one word which meets more than one criterion.
For example, if I want search a Bible with Strong’s numbers for every place the word “love” is tagged with key number G25 (which represents the Greek word agapao), I would use the at symbol: love@[Key G25]. The at symbol indicates that every hit word must match both criteria. Searching the HCSBS, this search returns 76 hits.
Now, Let’s replace the at symbol with the AND command to make the search love <AND> [Key G25]. This search will find any occurrence of the word love (regardless of its Key number) which appears together with any word (not just “love”) tagged with key number G25. This search returns 113 hits in the HCSBS.
So if you want to search for words that meet multiple criteria, such as a word tagged with a specific key number, a Greek or Hebrew word in a specific form, or even more complex combinations, be sure to link those criteria using the At symbol rather than the AND command.