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http://www.geocities.com/janet313/pienet/tutorial/srch3.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 03: Search Details: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SEARCH domingo IN PARKINSN This is the basic form of the search command. Changes in the capitalization of any of the words in this example will not affect the results. Note that there are no quotation marks. No dates are specified, so the entire archive is searched. Each post is searched in its entirety, including the sender, subject line and message. SEARCH tosca price IN PARKINSN or SEARCH tosca NEAR price IN PARKINSN Searches for all posts that contain "tosca" in the post near "price". NEAR is the "default operator", thus the two examples above give identical results. [The manual, LISTDB MEMO, incorrectly states that the default operator is AND, when it is in fact NEAR; the two examples above are identical.] For a NEAR search to consider a post to be a match, there must be five or fewer intervening words and the two words can't be more than one line distant (the order of the two words, however, is not important). Matches for this example would include cases like "priced", "caprices" and "Toscanini" - the "keyword in context" in the search results should help you decide which posts might be of interest. Note that there are no quote marks. Since no dates are specified in this search, all posts in the archive are searched. SEARCH tosca AND price IN PARKINSN The AND operator must be used if you want posts that have the two words anywhere in the post. SEARCH boehm OR bohm OR bo"hm IN PARKINSN Searches for all posts with any of these spellings. The OR operator is used when any of your criteria will do. If you mistakenly use AND in this search, it will probably come back with no matches, since no single post will have all the variants. SEARCH "White" IN PARKINSN FROM jan 96 TO dec 96 or SEARCH "White" IN PARKINSN FROM 96 TO 96 Assume you're looking for a name, White, Whiteman, Whiteside, or something similar that you can't quite remember, in all of 1996. The double quote marks means you want an exact match in capitalization. The 131 matches is more manageable than the 487 matches for the same search without quotes (only the first 100 are returned; change the time frame to see others). FROM...TO is always used as a pair, with two dates. Time frame includes all of January and all of December. SEARCH 'light baritone' IN PARKINSN SINCE jan 97 The quote marks mean you want these words to be adjacent in the post. Note that single quote marks ensure a wide search net, catching both "Light baritone" and "light baritones". But a search without the quotes might be better here, as this example misses a post that contains "light-timbred baritones". A SINCE expression takes one date. The search will begin with 1 Jan 97 and end with the latest archived post. SEARCH light NEAR bariton IN PARKINSN SINCE jan 97 or SEARCH light bariton IN PARKINSN SINCE jan 97 Probably a better way of handling the previous search. The two forms are identical, since NEAR is the default operator in a search for separate words. Dropping the "e" in baritone caught one post that had light near the adjective baritonal. In general, use the root or base form of a word; ticket will find ticket, tickets, ticketing, etc. Take into account common misspellings and variants, e.g. traveling or travelling; center or centre. SEARCH 'opera news' IN PARKINSN UNTIL feb 96 Finds all posts containing the string "opera news" from the earliest archived post through Feb. 1996. Only the first 100 matches (of over 200 in this time frame) are returned. Search again with a FROM... TO... expression to list those after the first 100. An UNTIL expression takes one date. SEARCH 'opera news' IN PARKINSN SINCE TODAY-15 Finds all posts containing the string "opera news" in the last 15 days; the archive is searched forward, not backward, in time. There can be no spaces on either side of the minus sign. The single quotes ensure that the two words are adjacent yet will find any combination of capitalization: Opera News, opera news, OPERA NEWS, etc. SEARCH 'ashoka''s dream' IN PARKINSN If you need an apostrophe inside single quotes, you must double the single-quote mark(s). Note that before the 's' there are two apostrophes. BTW, SEARCH ashoka IN opera-l would really be sufficient for the search in this case. Double quotes inside double quotes must also be doubled. Single quote mark(s) inside double quotes (and vice versa) should not be doubled. Got that? SEARCH * IN PARKINSN SINCE jan 97 WHERE SENDER CONTAINS rkosovsk Finds all posts that Bob Kosovsky sent since January 1, 1997. The asterisk (*) is used to represent "everything". N.B. the SENDER is the e-mail address of the sender only and does not include the "name" portion that you usually also see in the FROM line. If you need the current e-mail address of someone, you can use the SCAN command with all or part of the name. For example: SCAN PARKINSN pete returned a list of 21 names containing the substring "pete" along with their e-mail addresses. Note: some lists cannot be scanned; this decision rests with the listowner. SEARCH arabella IN PARKINSN WHERE SENDER CONTAINS jared Searches for all of Jared's posts containing "arabella". (I've posted from more than one address, which is why I did not use my full, current mailing address.) SEARCH arabella IN PARKINSN WHERE SENDER DOES NOT CONTAIN jared All posts containing "arabella" except for Jared's. Only the first 100 posts are listed. Search with a FROM... TO... date expression to list more. SEARCH * IN PARKINSN UNTIL may 96 WHERE SUBJECT CONTAINS tosca Finds all posts from the earliest through May 96 where the subject line contains "tosca". Note that * is needed to represent "everything". While there are some 180 posts meeting this criteria, only the first 100 are returned (use a FROM...TO expression to list the others). Note that UNTIL may 96 is the same as UNTIL 31 may 96. UNTIL or SINCE with a month name and no day always includes the whole month in the search. SEARCH * IN PARKINSN WHERE SUBJECT CONTAINS (tosca OR butterfly) Finds all posts with either word in the subject line. Note that multiple words in the CONTAINS expression must be placed inside parentheses. This CONTAINS expression is equivalent to: ...WHERE SUBJECT CONTAINS tosca OR SUBJECT CONTAINS butterfly SEARCH manon BUT NOT 'manon lescaut' IN PARKINSN BUT NOT is the same as AND NOT. It is perhaps easier to understand. There are 380 posts compared to the 653 for a search of manon alone (only the first 100 are returned). Beware, however, that there is a price to pay with this technique: you will not catch posts that mention both operas! // SEARCH * in PARKINSN SINCE mar 97 WHERE SUBJECT CONTAINS tosca and , sender IS [log in to unmask] Finds all posts from [log in to unmask] with tosca in the subject line from March 1, 97 to the present. The IS means that you want an exact match; CONTAINS will generally suffice (see example above). This search command may well be longer than the line width setting of your E-mail program, but LISTSERV requires it be on "one line". The solution is to start long commands with // SEARCH (note the obligatory space after the double slash) and end each but the last line with a space and a comma. This ensures that all the text is interpreted as one line. SEARCH tosca IN PARKINSN.100-210 SEARCH tosca IN PARKINSN.1-20000 SEARCH tosca IN PARKINSN.20000- This form of SEARCH is useful when you want to search a range of posts by their item # (which you might have, for example, from the results of a previous search). The first example searches post #100 through #210; the second searches from #1 to #20000; and the third from #20000 to the most recent post. ----------------------------------------------------------------------