Template:Search Instructions
By default the search boxes use a boolean search. To make a search enter one or more keywords with an optional prefix of +, - or |. + means the word must appear in the data. - means the word should not appear in the data. If no prefixes are used, the + prefix is assumed so the word must appear in the search results. To match an exact phrase enter the string in quotes. To make this clearer here are some examples
- apples oranges would match data that contains both the words apples and oranges (in any order)
- +apples +oranges is equivalent to above.
- +apples -oranges would match data that contains the word apples but not oranges.
- |apples |oranges would match data that contains either the word apples or the word oranges.
- "apples and oranges" would match data that contains the phrase apples and oranges
You may also use the wildcard * for partial word matching. For example
- lem* would match any words starting with lem such as lemons or lemmings.
Note that in boolean mode the wildcard only works appended to a word. You can not use it at the start of a word.
The boolean search can only search on words of 3 characters or more in length, unless searching for a phrase where it can match against phrases containing shorter words (so long as one word is more than 3 characters).
Some of the input fields also have a check box next to them. This enables exact mode. In this mode, the search doesn't recognise the entered text as separate keywords but one entire string (similar to that of the boolean phrase mode). This is useful to match against exact module names especially if they contain non alphanumeric characters which the boolean mode does not handle. The exact search also supports the wildcard * for partial matching. For example searching for format: *tracker* will return any formats with the word 'tracker' in the name, or a search for author Coma* would return any authors which start with 'Coma'. Note that the exact search with wildcards is *much* slower than the default boolean search (although a wildcard can be can be used at the start and end of a string so it can be useful in a few cases).
