# Unable to use search feature ...



## TravelSFO (Jul 28, 2005)

Recently, I tried searching All Forums for the string "one plus one".  Every time, the BBS immediately returns:

"    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 : one, plus, one"

It seems that I can't search on multiple words?  The search seems to work just fine if I'm looking for a single word.

I've tried checking the FAQ .. maybe I missed something?  Feel free to refer me to RTFM   I can't seem to find it!


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## Keitht (Jul 28, 2005)

The problem isn't in searching for multiple words.  If you re-read the reply from the system, the problem is with the words you are attempting to search on.  Both 'One' and 'Plus' are in the common words list of the search engine and excluded from search strings.  As they are the only words in your  requested search string nothing actually is being searched on.


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## TravelSFO (Jul 28, 2005)

*Is it possible to search on a "phrase" then?*

Thanks for your response, Keith.

I'm looking for information on "One Plus One" (as in RCI bonus weeks.)  How would I search the forums for this phrase?


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## Dave M (Jul 28, 2005)

That phrase won't work as a search string for the reasons Keith mentions. Thus, not all terms are searchable on these forums.

Fortunately, changing your search phrase slightly in this situation to "one-plus-one" turns up two hits, one of which is the very useful RCI FAQs. The other hit is merely a reference to the FAQ with no additional info.


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## TravelSFO (Jul 28, 2005)

*That was it!*

Looks like the way to search on a phrase is to string the words together using the dash "-".  

Shouldn't this be in the FAQ's?

Thanks, Dave.


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## Dave M (Jul 28, 2005)

No. The dashes worked in the search because the phrase in the FAQs had dashes!


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## TravelSFO (Jul 28, 2005)

Hmm?  So how would one search on an exact phrase?  Or, is that not possible?


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## geekette (Jul 28, 2005)

Just not with the very common words of One or Plus or The or A or And...  

When in doubt, reword and retry.


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## TravelSFO (Aug 1, 2005)

*RFE (Request for Enhancement -- just being wishful..)*

An exact phrase is not exactly "very common".  For example, "one plus one" as an EXACT PHRASE is not common.  I understand that, alone, "one" or "plus", may be common -- but 

I guess it boils down to the software not being able to support the complicated nature of phrase searching.

And, I can't exacly reword an exact phrase.


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## Dave M (Aug 1, 2005)

I think you misunderstand. The software *does* support exact phrase searching. 

For example, if you search all TUG BBS forums for the individual words *various, Marriott* and *properties*, you'll find 70 threads which have all three words. However, if you search for "various Marriott properties" (using the quotes as part of your search phrase), you'll find only one thread with that phrase.

The key to the problem that you had is that the software doesn't recognize as search terms many very common words, such as low numbers, prepositions, conjunctions, etc. Your search phrase was made up entirely of such words. Thus, although most phrases are searchable, not all are.


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## Dave M (Aug 1, 2005)

Adding....

The search mechanism will look for and find those common words - as part of a phrase - if there are other searchable words in the phrase you seek. For example, searching for "one thread with that phrase" (including the quotes) will turn up that quote in this thread (see my post above this one) and only this thread, even though the search phrase includes three words (*one, with* and *that*) which, individually, would not be searchable.


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## TravelSFO (Aug 1, 2005)

I guess I'm used to using software that will only search for the exact phrase when requested, such as "one plus one" will ONLY search for the exact phrase and not the individual words on their own.

Software should provide the option to search only for something or combination of as requested.  Otherwise, it can be impossible to find what you're looking for in a database without weeding out all that is irrelevent.  

Fortunately, I have patience to do this -- most end users will not :-/


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