# Search function questions



## Diane (Sep 6, 2005)

I can't seem to search for words of 3 letters or for phrases.  Am I doing something wrong?  I get the message that words of 3 letters or less can't be searched.  It would be very helpful if they could.  Right now I am trying to learn about exchange companies other than RCI and using initials, such as DAE, doesn't won't work.  


Also, when I  search a phrase, the search is done word by word, even when I put quotation marks around the phrase.

Thanks for any help,

Diane


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## Keitht (Sep 6, 2005)

It certainly doesn't seem to be the most sophisticated search engine in the world, but there are some strange anomolies.  It will accept a search for RCI or II, but attempt a search on DAE or SXF for example and it returns the error message 

"Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms. 

The following words are either very common, too long, or too short and were not included in your search : SFX"

I can only guess that RCI and II have been added to a list of accepted term but others haven't.  I know there was a similar query about an inability to search for "One plus One" because all the words were very common.  As you say, putting strings in quotes doesn't make any difference.


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## Makai Guy (Sep 6, 2005)

BBS search functions don't actually search the messages themselves, but an INDEX that the bbs creates of the words in the messages.  For performance reasons, only words of at least 4 letters are indexed.

Keith guessed correctly, that RCI and II have been added to a list of short words that will be indexed anyway.  I've just added DAE and SFX (not SXF) to this list, but I expect it will only index these terms for posts from now on.


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## Keitht (Sep 7, 2005)

Makai Guy said:
			
		

> I've just added DAE and SFX (not SXF) to this list, but I expect it will only index these terms for posts from now on.



Sorry, dyslexic fingers


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## intromaster (Jul 5, 2006)

If I search for (daytona) ocean walk, it searches for messages with OCEAN and messages with WALK. 

Very frustrating to do searches on this board.


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