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11.2 : Problem doing lex searches for *


Λύχνις Δαν

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Hi ya,

 

  Acc 11.2

  Mac 10.11.5

 

  I had cause to try doing a '*' search against the Entry field of Websters dictionary. That yields no hits. I then tried the same in BDAG and likewise no hits. But in BADG if I do this search : ?(α-ω)*   I get 8264 flex hits. This seems reasonable and every entry appears to have the headword highlighted. I don't know why * alone does not work - perhaps a bug ? Perhaps intended for some reason.

 

  Now going back to Webster's I try the equivalent : ?(a-z)* and I get this :

 

  post-32023-0-25193500-1467055893_thumb.jpg

 

  This is inconsistent behaviour it would seem and presumably a bug but ...

 

Thx

D

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* has never worked as a 'search all words' in a tool, the best way to do this is to search for ?*

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That takes ages in Websters but then it does return 205990 hits. It completes quickly in BDAG though.

 

That leaves open though the question of why the error in the ?(a-z)* case in Webster.

 

Also, why has * never been supported ? That seems odd. I don't know if it would be faster than the current thing. It took quite a number of minutes to complete against Webster - I can try to get an accurate time but didn't get it this time.

 

Thx

D

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The asterisk does find all the words in the current field, it just doesn't highlight or count them. It's used to display the entire tool, or just the paragraphs with that field, or the selected section in the Table of Contents (depending on the Show Text As setting).

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Thanx Helen. I did some tests. I see how it works. I think though highlighting and counting would be more consistent with the way searches are done in texts. However, if the different behaviour is to be maintained in tools it would be good to document it in the wildcard or searching tools documentation, neither of which mentions this.

 

thx

D

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Thanks for bringing this up Daniel. I'm working on adding some clarification to the help documentation on the use of symbols in tool modules. As Helen pointed out, the asterisk used in a tool simply displays the entire tool.

 

As Helen also mentioned, if a range has been selected in the Table of Contents of a tool, and "Show Text As -> Articles" has been selected, the asterisk can be used to display only the selected range.

 

The other symbols work as expected. So if you're in the PhotoGuide, for example, you can search for (Ga*-Gath-Gaza) and find any entry beginning with Ga except for Gath and Gaza.

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Hey Mark,

 

  Good to hear. BTW I tried in Websters just selecting Table of Contents for H and J and setting Show Text As -> Articles and there was no need to do a * search. It just showed the selected sections.

 

Thx

D

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