Editing Help:Searching (section)

=== Special characters ===
{{shortcut|H:SPCHAR}}

For [[regex]] searches, see the [[#insource:|<code>insource:</code>]] parameter below.

==== Double quotes for exact phrase search ====
{{anchor|double quotes}}

A [[phrase]] can be matched by enclosing it in double quotes, {{kbd|"like this"}}. Double quotes can define a single search term that contains spaces. For example, {{kbd|{{Search link|"holly dolly"}}}} where the space is quoted as a character, differs much from {{kbd|{{Search link|holly dolly}}}} where the space is interpreted as a logical AND.

==== Suffixed tilde character for fuzzy search ====
{{anchor|fuzzy search|respell}}<!-- Please leave anchors in place. Section redirects point to them. -->
{{short|H:FUZZY}}

[[Approximate string matching|Spelling relaxation]] is requested by suffixing a tilde {{kbd|~}}, like {{kbd|this~}} to match results like {{samp|thus}} and {{samp|thins}}. It covers any two character-changes for any character except the first: it returns addition, exchange, or subtraction. This search technique is sometimes called a "sounds-like" search. For example, searching for {{kbd|{{search link|charlie~ parker~}}}} returns {{samp|Charlie Parker}}, {{samp|Charles Palmer}}, {{samp|Charley Parks}}, etc.

==== Prefixed tilde character for forced search ====
{{anchor|forced search}}<!-- Please leave anchors in place. Section redirects point to them. -->
{{short|H:FORCE}}

To force a search rather than navigate directly to a matching page, include a tilde character {{kbd|~}} anywhere in the query. It always takes you to the search results page, never jumping to a single title. For example, the misspelling {{kbd|similiar}} is [[WP:Redirect|redirected]] to the [[:Similarity]]<!--Intentional disambiguation link.--> article (or, in this case, disambiguation page); but prefixing a tilde, {{kbd|{{search link|~similiar prefix:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|~similiar}}}}, lists pages containing that misspelling.

==== Prefixed hyphen or exclamation point for exclusion ====
{{anchor|exclusion|hyphen}}<!-- Please leave anchors in place. Section redirects point to them. -->
{{shortcut|H:EXCLUDE}} 

Pages matching a search term can be excluded by prefixing an exclamation point ({{kbd|!}}) or a hyphen ({{kbd|-}}) to the term. This is the [[logical NOT]]. For example, {{kbd|{{Search link|credit card -"credit card"}}}} finds all articles with {{samp|credit}} and {{samp|card}} {{em|except}} those with the phrase {{samp|credit card}}.

==== Wildcard characters ====
{{anchor|wildcard|wildcard search}}<!-- Please leave anchors in place. Section redirects point to them. -->
{{shortcut|H:WLD}}

The two wildcard characters are {{kbd|*}} and {{kbd|\?}}, and both can come in the middle or end of a word. The escaped question mark stands for one character and the star stands for any number of characters. Because many users ask questions when searching, question marks are ignored by default, and the escaped question mark ({{kbd|\?}}) must be used for a wildcard.

{{clear}}

==== Non-alphabetic characters ====
For non-alphabetic characters, regex expressions are needed. {{crossref|pw=y|(See [[#insource:|<code>insource:</code>]] below.)}}

==== Logical operators ====
{{shortcut|H:BOOLEAN|H:LOPS}}

The search engine supports {{em|limited}} boolean logic in searches. [[Negation|Logical NOT (negation)]] can be indicated by a "{{kbd|-}}" (minus sign) or a "{{kbd|!}}" (exclamation point) character prefixed to a search term, or by the {{kbd|NOT}} keyword.

Parentheses {{kbd|(…)}} are ignored by the search engine and have no effect.

Search terms are implicitly joined by [[Logical conjunction|logical AND (conjunction)]]. For example {{kbd|"credit card" housecat}} searches for pages containing both "credit card" and "housecat". An {{kbd|OR}} operator is supported, but will only give intuitive results (corresponding to [[logical disjunction]]) if ''all'' search terms are separated by {{kbd|OR}} (e.g. {{kbd|red OR green OR blue}} has the expected behaviour, but {{kbd|red OR green blue}} does not). {{kbd|OR}} also does not behave predictably with special keywords (like <code>intitle:</code>) or namespaces. {{crossref|pw=y|(See [[:mw:Help:CirrusSearch/Logical operators]] for a more detailed explanation.)}}