Searching the forums for a character

[bryce1]

Hello,

I was trying to search the forums for a question about the character 燕. When I do this though, it does not allow me, saying it is an invalid search. (and there is a thread I just created about this character)

Is it possible to search threads for characters?

Thanks!

[SiMaKe]

Character searches work but the search box needs at least 4 items.

[bryce1]

Thanks for the quick reply! Does that mean I would need to search for 4 characters? Is there a way to search for just the character 燕, for example? (would I have to do "character 燕"? I guess that would work assuming that the thread has both in its name)

[hackinger]

Hi,

I usually search directly with google like this:

site:www.chinese-forums.com 燕

Cheers

hackinger

[SiMaKe]

Yes, you need at least 4 characters or 3 characters and 1 word, etc. I have not had much luck in figuring out the search function. Contiguous strings seem to work fine if at least 4 items (.html etc don't count). Nor have I been able to find any documentation about boolean searches or other more refined techniques like * or ?. Even searching "help" doesn't produce much. The information may be out there someplace, I just haven't found it yet.

Maybe someone more knowledgeable will stop by.

[Edit] my wish was just granted! Thanks hackinger.

[bryce1]

Ah, good idea hackinger! Thanks

[gougou]

You can also use the google search box on the top left, which does essentially just that. It might take a while for new threads to be indexed, but the one about 燕 is in there already.

[roddy]

You should be able to search for a single character now, though if the server starts falling over I may roll back.

The forums search engine will search everything we have, but it can be a bit dumb. You need to use the advanced search page if something doesn't pop up easily. Google is a lot smarter, but doesn't necessarily index everything - there are some topics it just ignores for no reason I can see.