Search for INexact string

[ChrisGreaves]

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I am still struggling with "search".
For the time being, leaving aside the issue of whether my laptop has a TrackPad or Mouse, I wanted to see what the world thought of an over-sensitive wossit, and I thought that a search for mouse+sensitiv should find any posts with various forms such as 'sensitive", "sensitivity", and even typos such as "sensitivityityity" etc.

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When I smarten up and include a wild-card trailing asterisk in the search I see what I expect to see (circled in purple in the image immediately above).
But the first image returns me "81 matches", and as far as I can see not one of them contains the string "sensitiv" (without any trailing characters).
If NO posts in the Win10 forum contain the exact string "sensitiv", why did I get a non-zero number of matches for "sensitiv" AND "mouse"?

Ta ever so.
chris

[HansV]

You may prefer to use Google to search the Lounge. If you search for mouse sensitive site:eileenslounge.com, its algorithm will also return results for mouse sensitivity etc.

[ChrisGreaves]

You may prefer to use Google to search the Lounge. If you search for mouse sensitive site:eileenslounge.com, its algorithm will also return results for mouse sensitivity etc.

Thanks Hans.
I think that this is tantamount to saying "Don't use the Lounge's search function", in a mild way.
Hence my question, sort of:-
Why did I get a non-zero number of matches for "sensitiv" AND "mouse"?

Shouldn't my search have returned NO results?
Thanks
Chris

[HansV]

I don't know how phpBB's search algorithm works, but my guess is that

a) If you don't specify wildcards, it only looks for whole word matches.
b) Since it finds no matches for "sensitiv", it looks at "mouse" only (unlike what you'd expect).

[ChrisGreaves]

... it looks at "mouse" only (unlike what you'd expect).

Ah! Thanks Hans. Indeed the result did fail my expectations.
This aspect of "search" is contrary to most other implementations i have come across.
Cheers
Chris
(This business of growing older and thinking that you are losing your mind can drive you crazy!)

[PJ_in_FL]

It appears the first search was for matches for "sensitiv" OR "mouse".

Using advanced search options might be more likely to get the hits you expect, or, as Hans noted, use GOOGLE and trust their algorithm format.

[ChrisGreaves]

It appears the first search was for matches for "sensitiv" OR "mouse".

Hi PJ. My point exactly!
But the search mechanism is supposed to treat two separate strings as an AND conjunction by default.
That is, the following three forms should return identical results (zero matches):-

Code: Select all

sensitiv mouse
+sensitiv +mouse
sensitiv AND mouse

Cheers
Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

You may prefer to use Google to search the Lounge. If you search for mouse sensitive site:eileenslounge.com, its algorithm will also return results for mouse sensitivity etc.

HOORAY!
I can now search posted comments on my second-favorite site.

Code: Select all

possessive site:https://historyofenglishpodcast.com

The search box on historyofenglishpodcast.com seems to search only Kevin's text, not the users posted comments.
The nifty "site:" trick above searches users comments too.
(wanders off to try his luck elsewhere ...)
Thanks again
Chris