Avoid special chars in general search

General discussion related to "Everything".
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Stretto
Posts: 13
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2020 5:59 pm

Avoid special chars in general search

Post by Stretto »

when I enter search string is there any way to set certain chars to ignore so I don't have to explicitly specify them?

I'm talking about things like !, ),(,. _, -, etc (and of course spaces).

This.Is.Some-Filename_example.pdf

I would like to search just "is some filename" and it match. I still would like to retain the . for the .ext of course.

Hence these special chars are treated as whitespace.

Maybe a custom regex whitespace string can be set that is used to ignore such things as desired?

When one enters a special char specifically though it should not be ignored:

e.g., Is.Some filename

should check the . and not return matches to Is-Some
therube
Posts: 4580
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:48 pm

Re: Avoid special chars in general search

Post by therube »

I would like to search just "is some filename" and it match
In your example is
is some filename
actually in quotes?
Cause if not, that would still match what you want (though it could pick up more, too, i.e. different ordering...).


An Ignore Punctuation will be in 1.5.
So,
"batmans hacker page-"

will match,
~_-=BaTMaN's HaCKeR PaGE=-_~.url

(Not sure of all the nuances there, but it will help.)
raccoon
Posts: 1015
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2018 1:24 am

Re: Avoid special chars in general search

Post by raccoon »

I can't understand your question, and I'm pretty good at understanding questions. The main thing I'm stumped on is whether you want non-alpha symbols to be treated as whitespace within your search terms that you typed, or within the search results that are returned.

When you search for the following

Search: The quick brown fox

it will match

Results: The.quick.brown-fox.jumps.over.the.lazy-dog.1997.mkv

If you want it the other way around, then you will have to strip out the non-alpha characters from your search terms before you paste them.

Search: The.quick.brown.fox --> Search: The quick brown fox

If you definitely need to retain the word order as a quote string, then use question marks (?) instead of spaces, and put an asterisk (*) at the beginning and end of your search term, as a standard globbing pattern.

Search: The.quick.brown.fox --> Search: *The?quick?brown?fox*

And yes, regex is also possible but seems excessive.
therube
Posts: 4580
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:48 pm

Re: Avoid special chars in general search

Post by therube »

I believe he wants them treated as whitespace.
And that's why I asked about the quotation marks.
If not there, then 'the quick brown fox' works, but if actually needed, quotes, then it would not match 'the-quick-brown-fox'.

noise
Last edited by void on Thu Oct 22, 2020 8:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: changed link to ddg - [url=http://www.voidtools.com/forum/search.php?keywords=noise&terms=all&author=therube&sc=1&sf=all&sr=posts&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search]noise[/url]
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