Hello everybody

Can somebody explain me the difference between "Find similar words" and "Find exact words" ?? I tried to find out, but the results were always the same... I thought that "Find similar words" will find "word" if you put in for example "ward" but it just didn't find anything. So... can you explain this mystery to me please?

Thank you very much in ahead

Robo

Hi Robo,

I am just wondering where you are seeing "Find Similar Words".

My option search in Links has "Substring" and "Exact Word" search options for example.


http://www.iuni.com/...tware/web/index.html
Links Plugins

Hello Ian!

Thank you for your response! I am using spanish version of Links SQL, so I took those words from the LSQL demo on GT's site:

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/...inks-sql2/search.cgi

Can you explain me please what is the difference between those two options?

Thank you very much in ahead

Robo

Interesting... I never released that was on the demo

Well "Exact Word" means the search must conatin exactly what the searcher types:

Example "Wet Blanket" : Wet Blanket must somewhere in the link title, link description etc

For "Substring":

Example "Wet Blanket": Wet OR Blanket could be in the link title, link description etc. This would normally yeild more results, but not as narrow a search.

Exact words will normally pin-point a search result better, but restrict the number of possibilities returned.

I hope that makes sense.


http://www.iuni.com/...tware/web/index.html
Links Plugins

Hello Ian :-)

Thank you for your new response :-)

BUT... Did you give it a try? I tried this: I created two links, one with frase "black white" and the other one with frase "white black". Then - BOTH searching methods produced the same result - both links found.

Is it a bug?

Robo

Hi Robo,

As far as I am aware, if your search term is 'cat' and you choose exact words, then the exact word cat must be in the results. If you choose find similar words then the results can contain cat, cathedral, catalogue, scatter... i.e. any words that contain cat.

If you want the exact phrase returned then you need to put quotation marks around it like "black white" - you should find that this doesn't return the 'white black' link. (This only works with some of the indexing methods). There is some information about how the search engine works in the manual.

Laura.
The UK High Street

Hello Laura!

No! Give it a try - it is not working as you describe it... I thought the same thing as you and I also read the manual. But the reality is different...

Robo

In what way is it not working?

There is just NO difference if you use these two options - it doesn't affect search in any way (or it seems so)

I see what you mean on the demo site. I think this must be a problem on the demo as it seems to be working on my site.

Laura.
The UK High Street

It probably has to do with the "search_substring" setting in the admin panel under Setup > Search Options. If you have this set to yes, it will always search the database using substring searches (bycycl = Bicycling, Bicycle, Bicycles). If you set it to no, it will search for the exact word you enter unless you tell it to "Find Similar Words" in the advanced options, or use an "*" at the end of your word/partial word (bicycl* = Bicycling, Bicycle, Bicycles) to force a substring search.

I hope this makes sense.

Sean

It seems so! Thank you Sean!