End User can't get info on how to search a VB board

[thaugen]

I've tried several search phrases such as "Fusor 100", Fusor + 100, Fusor AND 100, but none of those searches captured results with postings including both Fusor and 100. When I came here, the manual doesn't cover it. Something so simple and so unfriendly, or am I just an idiot?

Tom

[Zachery]

100 is too small by default, mysql fulltext search by default wont index anything under 4 characters.

try fusor 100*

[thaugen]

Thanks for the response

100 is too small by default, mysql fulltext search by default wont index anything under 4 characters.

try fusor 100*

OK, I see what you mean. Search does work with 5 or more characters. Nice of VB to not tell us end-users anything.

Tom

[Zachery]

Its 4 characters or more, and its a mysql restriction we wish wasn't there.

To add to that, administrators in version 3 (who dont use the mysql fulltext option) can lower the limit, and there are third party options like sphinx that allow you to search pretty much everything if configured.

[thaugen]

Wait, I just tried fusor 100* but I don't get both terms in the results, I also get Fusor results and I get 100 results. How do I phrase this in the search box?

Thanks, Tom

[Lynne]

If you have "Can Use Boolean Search" set to Yes for the usergroup, then you can use + and = when searching. If you searched on "+xxxx +yyyy" then you would get back results that had both xxxx AND yyyy in them. If you did "+xxxx -yyyy" then you would get back only results that had xxxx but NOT yyyy in them. I don't think you will get any results back with "100" in them by searching on "100*" since "100" won't be indexed since it is only 3 letters (unless you change this in the mysql configuration and then rebuild the search index).

[thaugen]

Thanks for the information

It would be nice to have this information on the Advanced Search page when an end user opens it, but I suppose that is up to the site administrator to place that information there.

[Dirt Bike Addict]

Depending on your hosting setup, you can change the ft_min_word_len setting (in your my.cnf file on your server) from 4 to 3. After which you'll be able to search for 3 letter words. This is pretty advance and I don't recommend attempting it unless you know what you're doing.