Search Commands
The following page describes the type of search commands that are valid for our site's search engine.
And
Search term: leather chair
Returns messages if "leather" and "chair" are both found, but does not require that those words be found in that order, a reverse order, or to even be in the same sentence. No special command is needed. This is the default.
Exact Phrase
Search term: "leather chair"
Returns messages with "leather chair," but requires that phrase to be found. Quotes are needed around the terms to be matched as an exact phrase.
Or
Search term: (desk,chair)
Returns messages that have at least one of the terms in the parenthesis. If the message has "desk" and/or "chair", then results will be returned. You can also have it search for exact phrases like in the next example.
Search term: (desk,leather chair)
Which would search for the exact phrase "leather chair" and/or "desk" in the message.
Exclude Words
Search term: -desk chair
Returns messages that do not have the term desk, but do have other conditions that you set. You cannot simply have an excluded term as your search term, since you would get almost every message as a result. You must have a combination, such as what is noted above. In the example, you would get results for messages that had "chair," but did not have "desk." The next example is a method of allowing multiple exclusions.
Search term: -(desk,bureau) chair
You must note that with that, the parenthesis do not represent or. It will make sure that every word in parenthesis is not included. In the example, you would get results for messages that had "chair," but did not have the word "desk" and "bureau."
Wildcard
Search term: box*
Returns messages that begin with "box" such as: boxer, boxing, boxes, boxed
This method can be used with most other methods. See the next section for some combinations.
Combinations of Advanced Commands
"chair and desk" -green -red* -(bed,dresser) chair -"xyz corp" board* (box*,cushion) -(red*,dresser)
The line above is an acceptable command. Our search will allow you to combine as many advanced commands as you like. You can have more than one of the same command too. The above is an example of the combinations of advanced commands with advanced commands inside them.
Please note that with the following four example search terms, as with all exclusions, you must include another advanced search command as described above.
Partial search term: -(bed,dresser)
Equivalent to term: -bed -dresser
Partial search term: -19*
Will not return results like 1930, 1950, 1900's, 19th. Maybe you are looking for something in the 2000's, so this will exclude the 1900's.
Partial search term: -"xyz corp"
This will exclude messages with the exact phrase "xyz corp," but will allow messages that have "xyz" and "corp" in any other combination.
Partial search term: -(red*,dresser)
Equivalent to term: -red* -dresser
This will exclude messages with the word "dresser" and exclude messages that begin with "red," such as any of these: red, reddish, redder.
Incorrect Advanced Commands
Hopefully you now have a better understanding of how our search works. Now we'll go ahead and go over some of the things that our search won't do.
Wildcard searches for the beginning of the word are not included in our search. We didn't find many instances of its use on the web, so we did not include it. We also did not include wildcards for exact search strings. All of the below are not supported.
"chair and desk*" -*green -(*bed,dresser) *chair -"*xyz corp" (*box*,cushion)
We also did not implement advanced wildcards that would allow you to list many words.
(red,19)*
That won't give a wildcard for either terms that start with "red" and/or "19." It would be too confusing, since parenthesis are already used as an "or" command or for a list of exclusions. Supported alternatives are listed below:
For "or": (red*,19*)
For "and": red* 19*