I've been trying to create fairly elaborate (specific) Deal Alerts for myself, but I think that I must really not understand what search modifiers SD allows, or possibly how it uses them. I had been treating the search engine like it accepted boolean, although maybe my grasp on that is wrong, too. I tried searching for help, but... Well, there's some irony to that. I didn't have much luck.

As it stands, all I know for sure is that -apples will omit anything with the word "apples" in the title or first post. I don't understand if or how the following symbols work, though:

+apples (shouldn't this ensure that every result I get MUST include the word "apples"?

"rotten apples" (doesn't this specify that I only want the full term "rotten apples" returned, and not only "rotten" or "apples" individually, even if they've both in the first post in different places?)

rot* (shouldn't this make it so that my search with return the terms "rot," "rotten," "rotting," "rotted," etc?)


Furthermore, anytime I try using a number of operators together, I really wind up with confusing results. And it's entirely possible there are more operators- or other tricks- I just don't know about.

Lately I've been trying to create a really specific Deal Alert for MS Xbox Live point deals, and I just can't seem to get anything that will return all the point deals, but not fill my inbox with basically every last mention of an Xbox.

Could anybody please take the time to list out the various search operators and how to use them properly for me? It would help me so much. Huge thanks to anyone who can help. :worship:

I've been trying to create fairly elaborate (specific) Deal Alerts for myself, but I think that I must really not understand what search modifiers SD allows, or possibly how it uses them. I had been treating the search engine like it accepted boolean, although maybe my grasp on that is wrong, too. I tried searching for help, but... Well, there's some irony to that. I didn't have much luck.

As it stands, all I know for sure is that -apples will omit anything with the word "apples" in the title or first post. I don't understand if or how the following symbols work, though:

+apples (shouldn't this ensure that every result I get MUST include the word "apples"?

"rotten apples" (doesn't this specify that I only want the full term "rotten apples" returned, and not only "rotten" or "apples" individually, even if they've both in the first post in different places?)

rot* (shouldn't this make it so that my search with return the terms "rot," "rotten," "rotting," "rotted," etc?)


Furthermore, anytime I try using a number of operators together, I really wind up with confusing results. And it's entirely possible there are more operators- or other tricks- I just don't know about.

Lately I've been trying to create a really specific Deal Alert for MS Xbox Live point deals, and I just can't seem to get anything that will return all the point deals, but not fill my inbox with basically every last mention of an Xbox.

Could anybody please take the time to list out the various search operators and how to use them properly for me? It would help me so much. Huge thanks to anyone who can help. :worship:



You do not need a + in front of the term. The default is an AND search for all terms. If you need an OR search, use the | character.
Using quotes enables phrase search and it makes the order of the terms important. Thus "rotten apple" would return posts with "rotten peach & apple" but will not return "the apple is rotten."
Wildcards are not supported at this time. However, searching for reward will also return rewards.

If you are creating queries for deal alerts, I would suggest searching for the first post only as that is what deal alert uses.

Another helpful search parameter is @title & @pagetext. Prepending @title will search for the terms in the title only while @pagetext searches in the post body. You can get creative and create queries like "-headset -webcam -download @title xbox live @pagetext -console -arcade -elite (http://slickdeals.net/sdsearch.php?search=-headset+-webcam+-download+@title+xbox+live+@pagetext+-console+-arcade+-elite&forumchoice[]=9&mode=forum&showposts=0&sdsearch_archive=0&firstpost=1)" w/o quotes.

Using quotes enables phrase search and it makes the order of the terms important. Thus "rotten apple" would return posts with "rotten peach & apple" but will not return "the apple is rotten."


*tap on slickdeals shoulder* :annoyed:

Mod alerted for personal attack :mad:

*tap on slickdeals shoulder* :annoyed:

Mod alerted for personal attack :mad:

:lol:Want me to try and give him a warning point for you? :evillaf: I bet he's never ever had one. :P

Thus "rotten apple" would return posts with "rotten peach & apple" but will not return "the apple is rotten.




:bigeye:

WTF? :mad:

Jerk!

:eek:

*Runs away!*

Too bad that Add Deal Alert link on the search page doesn't always work.

Using quotes enables phrase search and it makes the order of the terms important. Thus "rotten apple" would return posts with "rotten peach & apple" but will not return "the apple is rotten."
Sorry, but i thought "rotten apple" was an exact search phrase search.

How do i look for "lenovo thinkpad" only?

Sorry, but i thought "rotten apple" was an exact search phrase search.

How do i look for "lenovo thinkpad" only?
Search for "lenovo thinkpad" with quotes included (like this (http://slickdeals.net/forums/sdsearch.php?&order=descending&sortby=lastpost&search=%22lenovo%20thinkpad%22&perpage=20&mode=forum)). Of if you just want it in title, use @title "lenovo thinkpad" (like this (http://slickdeals.net/forums/sdsearch.php?mode=forum&showposts=0&sdsearch_archive=0&sortby=lastpost&order=descending&search=@title+%22lenovo+thinkpad%22))

In the example above, "rotten apple" was meant to be used without quotes, so it would return any post with "apple" and "rotten" in it, not necessarily the exact phrase.