#1: Adam Nielson (monkeyboy) on Dec 2, 2009

Is there a way to find a particular puzzle that I commented on, without knowing the number of that puzzle? For example, if I specifically remember making the comment about fish who eat hairballs, but can't remember the puzzle I made that comment on, can I find it? I have noticed in the past if I type a random number in the search box under forums, it often pulls up a bunch of threads or puzzles that have that number mentioned (I typed in "700" for example). Lots of numbers don't work at all, but others do. Is there any rhyme or reason for this?

I don't really get this question.

The forum search uses the full text search built into mysql. I don't actually know a whole lot about how that works, but it seems to generally work. I just searched for "hairballs" and found this item and one other. If you enter numbers there, it presumably finds places that those numbers are mentioned in the forums. The forum text search isn't currently combinable with searches on other things, like comment authors or puzzle numbers.

That's what I was wondering. I had typed the number "7" (no match found) and then the word "seven" (no match found) in the search bar. Nothing came up either time. I was just trying to find the puzzle in which I (or anyone) had commented something about the number 7. It didn't work.

I guess your last sentence answered the question. I was just hoping there was some way to search for previously posted puzzle comments.

I think the search requires a string of 3 or greater. I did a search for w with no results, then a search for wc with no results, then a search for wcp with lots of results.

Also, I did a search for 1 with no results, then a search for 12 with no results, then a search for 123 and got several results. I tried using the asterisk but it didn't help.

I think Teresa has got it.

Now my only wish is that the description field could be searched.

Never mind. I guess I can't explain what I am trying to say. Apparently the forum search doesn't do what I was thinking it did.

The description field can't be searched? That's somewhat disappointing.

So, if say I wanted to make a puzzle of the American flag (because, you know, we definitely need more of those LOL), and I wanted to check first how many others there already were, how do I find out? Solve all the puzzles first? Yikes.

I guess if someone says "nice flag" or something in the comments, the search will find it. But I could see value in being able to search puzzle descriptions.

I also noticed that I don't think it will search for exact strings, so if I search for "american flag" (with quotes) I get results that have "american" OR "flag" anywhere in them, but not necessarily exactly as "american flag". Again, somewhat unfortunate.

Out of curiosity, I tried doing a web search for information on the features of full-text search in MySQL. I was hoping to find something like "Here is a list of what MySQL's search function does and does not do". But what I'm finding seems aimed at developers so I didn't understand any of it. I gave up after looking at 20 or so pages. A developer I am not.

if you want american flag do a search on boring puzzle it should do the job.... JK

LOL! Yeah, that might work.

Goto next topic

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