# search function



## scotu

Is there a way to enter a complete phrase in the search function so that it searches for the entire phrase and not for a collection of the unconnected words?

Thanks, scotu


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## mickaël

Yes, use the quotation marks for the whole sentence.


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## scotu

mickaël said:


> Yes, use the quotation marks for the whole sentence.


 
Thanks for the tip. scotu


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## Alxmrphi

Nope......

If you use quotation marks it only takes you to relavent search results in the links back to the forum, take the example "romance languages"...

If you type in this "romance languages" with the quotes then you don't get a dictionary result, but you get a list of relavent topics here in the forums.

If you search without the quotes, just *romance languages* then you get the actual result desired, if you search for them seperately you do not get the desired entry

This is all using English-Italian dictionary function, not sure if it is the same for all of them.
Conclusion: Quotation marks don't *always* (I don't know for sure) take you to the right term.

If we want to find out what the phrase "essere in grado" means we can search for it

1) with quotations = no results again, only links back to WRF
2) without quotations = desired translation (to be able to/up to)

Basically, if you use quotation marks in the dictionary you may as well just be searching the forums!


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## geve

Alex_Murphy said:


> Basically, if you use quotation marks in the dictionary you may as well just be searching the forums!


Wasn't it precisely what scotu was asking about?  
Searching the forums for a complete sentence (with quotation marks) might get you more results than a dictionary search, because there's always the possibility that this sentence was suggested as a translation for a sentence in your target language; and the dictionary search only browses titles.


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## Alxmrphi

Reading back, I was sure somewhere I read that it was for the dictionary and not the forums...

Ok back to the mental home Alex


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## scotu

Alex_Murphy said:


> Nope......
> 
> If you use quotation marks it only takes you to relavent search results in the links back to the forum, take the example &quot;romance languages&quot;...
> 
> If you type in this &quot;romance languages&quot; with the quotes then you don't get a dictionary result, but you get a list of relavent topics here in the forums.
> 
> If you search without the quotes, just *romance languages* then you get the actual result desired, if you search for them seperately you do not get the desired entry
> 
> This is all using English-Italian dictionary function, not sure if it is the same for all of them.
> Conclusion: Quotation marks don't *always* (I don't know for sure) take you to the right term.
> 
> If we want to find out what the phrase &quot;essere in grado&quot; means we can search for it
> 
> 1) with quotations = no results again, only links back to WRF
> 2) without quotations = desired translation (to be able to/up to)
> 
> Basically, if you use quotation marks in the dictionary you may as well just be searching the forums!


 
When I search for "romance languages" (with quotes) I get romance languages but I also get posts with the word languages, and the word romance? Is that the way it is or am I doing something wrong?


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## cubaMania

For what it is worth, I have had the same experience, that the quotation marks in WR forum search do not function as expected, i.e. as they do in most search applications, as an indicator that you want the exact phrase.  Using quotation marks in WR forum search (usually) seems to give the same results as a search for anyword + anotherword, i.e both words are there but not necessarily together and in that order.  I vaguely remember a suggestion that the Google search restricted to WR (look down below when you open Advance Search) could be used instead, but many times that does not help for one reason or another:
can't restrict to threads only not individual messages
can't restrict to sub-forum only
may return far too many results -- 285,000 for "romance languages"
may return no results at all -- e.g. "eligibility criteria" none from google, but 5 from WR forum search

I do not know whether this is inherent in the vBulletin software or under control of Mike Kellogg, but I certainly would love to see search for exact phrase implemented in the forum search function.

By the way, because "romance languages" returns 183 results (at this exact moment anyway) I suggest a different test phrase which returns only 5 results (at this exact moment), which illustrates the problem: "eligibility criteria".


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## scotu

cubaMania said:


> By the way, because "romance languages" returns 183 results (at this exact moment anyway)


Thanks for the detailed response. (I just used Romance Languages because it is a an example in the WR instructions)


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## Harry Batt

Thanks Scotu for that one.  You have opened up a new world in the French/English dictionary for me.


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