Search engine "two characters long"

Started by exxocet, April 06, 2017, 02:44:26 PM

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exxocet

  When searching for 1...2 characters, the search returns "Each word must be at least two characters long" and no search is done. That's mega-annoying for the users and  it's only happening on SMF.
  Yes, I understand that the search engine will skip 1 or 2 characters terms and all forum softwares do that, but neverthless it should do the search for the remaining valid terms and display the results, along with a warning "words with less than 2 characters were skipped".

Steve

I'm confused. If you search for one or two characters you're going to get that prompt. I don't understand what you're trying to search for.


Edit: I think I just realized what you're asking. Let me make sure. If you search for 'at' you want it to return all results that contain 'at', for example 'mate', but say that the word 'at' was skipped, correct?
DO NOT pm me for support!

Dav999

He/She means that if you enter "this is a search term", the entire search will get blocked by the 1-letter word in there.

landyvlad

Yes I believe that's his concern. That search currently returns "Each word must be at least two characters long."

I think what he wants is: If a search is done on "this is a search term" the result will be as per the attachment, with a note that:

"words with less than 2 characters were skipped"



"Put as much effort into your question as you'd expect someone to give in an answer"

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with questions on astrophysics or theology.  You will get better and faster responses by asking homeless people in the street. Thank you.

Be the person your dog thinks you are.

Steve

But it makes not sense to have the system search for every instance of the letter 'd', for example, and eliminating all the single instances of it.
DO NOT pm me for support!

landyvlad

"Put as much effort into your question as you'd expect someone to give in an answer"

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with questions on astrophysics or theology.  You will get better and faster responses by asking homeless people in the street. Thank you.

Be the person your dog thinks you are.

exxocet

  I'm not asking to search for one letter terms. I'm asking to skip those, but continue with the search. That's what all the other forums software do.
  Per instance, if you're searching for "a dog", SMF won't do the search at all, but it will return "Each word must be at least two characters long". You'll have to came back and remove "a", in order to successfully get some search results. This is very annoying, you'll have to make another operation, pick every 1 char terms and manually remove it just to get that search done.

  Right now is working like this
1 - type "a dog" and hit search button
2 - surprise, you won't get any search result, but that damn "Each word must be at least two characters long"
3 - go back and remove "a", search only for "dog"
4 - finally get search results

  It should work like this:
1 - type "a dog" and hit search button
2 - get search results and a notification: "one characters terms have been skipped"

Hope now I've made myself understood. Thank you guys!

Steve

Now I understand. Thanks for explaining it. :)
DO NOT pm me for support!

lurkalot

Quote from: exxocet on April 08, 2017, 11:32:33 AM

  Per instance, if you're searching for "a dog", SMF won't do the search at all, but it will return "Each word must be at least two characters long". You'll have to came back and remove "a", in order to successfully get some search results.


Actually, searching for "a dog" won't give you that warning, if you leave the double quotes in place.  Just search between double quotes and you'll see what I mean.

exxocet

Quote from: lurkalot on April 08, 2017, 03:37:31 PM
Quote from: exxocet on April 08, 2017, 11:32:33 AM

  Per instance, if you're searching for "a dog", SMF won't do the search at all, but it will return "Each word must be at least two characters long". You'll have to came back and remove "a", in order to successfully get some search results.


Actually, searching for "a dog" won't give you that warning, if you leave the double quotes in place.  Just search between double quotes and you'll see what I mean.


  I know what it does, I know for 20 years about exact phrases, double quotes marks are there just for specifying 'a dog' are search terms.

  Imagine searching for 'a dog' on Google and instead of results, getting "Each word must be at least two characters long". A reliable way to bust their company in just a couple of months and have Bing and DuckDuckGo eating the cake.

lurkalot

OK, so as a workaround, what about adding a google site search to your website.

I can't see the SMF built in one changing any time soon, or at least not in this version. It's been like this for a very long time.

Arantor

It's also not officially considered a bug either so no chance of a change in 2.0.

exxocet

Quote from: Arantor on April 09, 2017, 06:32:53 AM
It's also not officially considered a bug either so no chance of a change in 2.0.

  It should be. Not exactly a bug, OK, rather a missing feature.
  Not a chance on vanilla 2.0, I understand that, but I guess it could be a suggestion for 2.1.
Thanks for your answers.
 

Arantor

Given how much frustration I had to convince the team of changes that required less work because 'it's always been this way', good luck.

albertlast

i don't understand what your all talking about...
in my 2.1 env when i search a dog than i got the message "The following term has been ignored in your search because too short:a"
when i search "a dog" no messages apear (and the database search for both).
both test the searching is done.

both tested with mysql and pg.

so where is your issue?

Arantor

This is certainly an issue in 2.0. I certainly didn't test it in 2.1 to see if the behaviour had been changed.

exxocet

  Well, at least I've tried. Thanks for your time, Arantor.

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