Editing Help:Searching (section)

=== Refining results ===
{{shortcut|H:REFINE}}

The ''Search'' page is designed for presenting and refining results in a re-search loop controlled by modifying the query or the search parameters, such as namespace.

==== Namespaces ====
[[File:Wiki search namespaces.png|thumb|upright=1.25|By default only the Article namespace is searched, but these checkboxes can be used to add other types of Wikipedia pages such as talk pages or user pages.]]
[[WP:article|Articles]] are in the main [[Help:Namespace|namespace]], or "article space", but ''[[Special:Statistics]]'' will show that there are many times more ''pages'' on Wikipedia than there are ''articles'' on Wikipedia. Other ''types'' of pages are in other ''namespaces'', and these can be selected using the checkboxes that appear when expanding the section labelled ''Search in:'' under the search box.
* "{{int:advancedsearch-namespaces-preset-default}}": Only search encyclopedia articles (also called [[WP:MAINSPACE|mainspace]]).
* "{{int:advancedsearch-namespaces-preset-discussion}}": Search [[Help:Talk pages|talk pages]]. Some discussions are in the <code>Wikipedia:</code> namespace, which can be included by also selecting "General help" (which also adds help pages) or by selecting "Wikipedia" under "{{int:advancedsearch-namespaces-placeholder}}".
* "{{int:advancedsearch-namespaces-preset-general-help}}": Search the [[Wikipedia:Help namespace|<code>Help:</code> namespace]] and [[Wikipedia:Project namespace|<code>Wikipedia:</code> namespace]] (also called project namespace). The latter contains various types of pages including many help pages.
** Unfortunarely, there is no reliable way to exclude discussion pages from the results, but you can try adding to your query {{kbd|-insource:/\(UTC\)/}} (which would also exclude help pages containing "(UTC)"); or try something more delicate like [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?search=interwiki+wikidata+-intitle%3A%2F%5B0-9%5D%7B4%7D%7C%5BAa%5Dssessm%7C%5BCc%5Dandi%7C%5BPp%5Dropos%7C+%5BFf%5Dor+%7C%5C%2F%5BAa%5Drchive%7CRRA%7C%5BRr%5Dequest%28s%7Ced%29%7CR%5BFf%5DC%7CMeetu%7Cticeb%7C%28Recent+%7CiProj%7CMediat%7C%5BSs%5Dock+%3Fp%7Csancti%7Ceview%7Ctigations%7Cslation%7Ckf%7Ce+wee%7CUsu%7CGL%7Cse+re%7Cifun%29.%2A%5C%2F%2F&title=Special:Search&profile=advanced&fulltext=1&ns4=1&ns12=1 this] (which would also exclude help subpages of WikiProjects).
* "{{int:advancedsearch-namespaces-preset-all}}": Search every page on the entire wiki, for example also drafts and user pages.

Click "{{int:advancedsearch-namespaces-placeholder}}" to select [[Wikipedia:Namespace|namespaces]] individually. 

In order to fully interpret the search results page, check which search domains are checked off, but also remember to check for a namespace name at the beginning or a <code>prefix:</code> parameter at the end of the search box query. A namespace entered in a query always takes priority for determination of the search domain of a query, and will at any time override your default search domain, or any displayed ''profile''. A <code>prefix:</code> parameter at {{em|the end}} of a query in the search box, furthermore, will override any namespace there, or any ''profile'' underneath that. Equivalently, you could check the [[WP:URL|URL]] in your browser's address bar for profile and namespace parameter settings, because the search query was sent to the search engine by way of that URL.

==== Sorting ====
By default, results are ordered by [[Relevance (information retrieval)|relevance]]. The "Sorting order" control in the "Advanced search" section allows you to select two other sort orders: most recently edited, and most recently created.

An advanced technique is to manually modify the URL to achieve other sort orders. For example, adding <code>&sort=incoming_links_desc</code> to the end of the URL will sort pages with the most incoming links to the top, and <code>&sort=random</code> will randomly order results. For a full list of available sort orders, see [[mw:Help:CirrusSearch#Explicit sort orders]].