Hooray! a boolean search including an exact search!

Fidcal on 2/11/2005 at 06:48

I know this is off-topic but I and many others would never see it in general discussions and it's important. Read it quick before it gets moved.

How long has the boolean search been available? (If it's in one of the 50 pages FAQ stickies does anyone have time to read them?)

I have agonized before about the lack of an exact phrase search in these forums and others have grumbled too. Just searching for map palette problem gets you 99 pages about maps, 99 pages about palettes and 99000 pages about problems.

But I just spotted the boolean search option quietly tucked away near the bottom of the search page. Has that always been there! Presumably not as an admin reply only last year said an exact phrase search might not be possible. The default so-called 'natural language' selection just seems to put an 'OR' between every keyword.

For anyone that doesn't know how to use boolean:

Putting quotes around a phrase searches for an exact phrase eg, "Index 4 out of range"

Using AND between keywords searches for topics including ALL the keywords, eg, map and palette

Using OR between keywords searches for ANY of the keywords, eg, objects or models or shapes

And you can mix 'em eg, "exact phrase" AND search

Plus you can save this as your default if you have cookies enabled (see bottom of search page)

Hooray! It's Christmas already!

Eshaktaar on 2/11/2005 at 09:32

Boolean search was added in the latest vBulletin version, and TTLG made the switch at the start of October. Take a look at the "Forums & TTLG Website Network" forum (where this thread is probably going to end up) for more info.

Convict on 2/11/2005 at 10:51

Ok I'm doing something wrong maybe...:confused:

I chose boolean instead of natural language and I entered this:
map AND palette

then search for posts and randomly pick one post:
(http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1349915&highlight=map+palette#post1349915)

However this post only has palette in it - no mention of map. What did I do wrong?

Vigil on 2/11/2005 at 11:35

It doesn't mention maps at all, but it does mention bitmaps. Apparently by default the keywords match partial words as well as full words. You might be able to convince it to do a full-word-only match by using the string <kbd>"map" AND "palette"</kbd>...or you might not.

Eshaktaar on 2/11/2005 at 11:35

It could be that words with less than four characters are ignored - I get no results when I search for 'map' alone.

Convict on 2/11/2005 at 11:51

Ok I did a search as before with the words plain and palette:

Random results:
(http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1349915&highlight=map+palette#post1349915)
(http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=814434&highlight=plain+palette#post814434)

It's probably as you say that you need more than 3? or 4? letters to search.

David on 2/11/2005 at 12:05

Words of less the four characters are currently ignored, however I have to upgrade the forums so I'll drop it back to three. Any less than that and I feel the performance improvement will be lost.

The search engine will take a little getting used to, hopefully defaulting it to order by relevancy will be helpful.

Convict on 2/11/2005 at 13:25

Plz try and remember that most of us have very little idea about computer searching and stuff like that but we know how to google (so a similar method may be useful).

ZylonBane on 2/11/2005 at 18:55

Yeah the current defaults are quite rubbish. Natural language search should default to ALL search terms.

SubJeff on 6/11/2005 at 21:55

'Tis bizarre. Perhaps I don't understand what Natural Language means in search terms (likely). I searched thread titles for "lost" and "Lost" and didn't get much out of it, and not the one on the tv show I was looking for.