Search ignores non-alphanumeric characters

Bugs » #28


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Posted by James KanjoJames Kanjo on 21 Mar 2009 00:51, last edited on 21 Mar 2009 04:21

This bug is open

Description

When using Wikidot's inbuilt search function, you are unable to search for words with non-alphanumeric characters in them. This is because the search parser ignores the non-alphanumeric characters. However, commas (,) and colons (:) seem to be interpreted as spaces.

User Input Search Interprets
moc.todikiw|tcatnoc#moc.todikiw|tcatnoc contactwikidot.com
code-101 code101
code,red code red
code:502 code 502

Strangely, however, if there is only a single character before or after the non-alphanumeric character, the non-alphanumeric character is interpreted as a space.

User Input Search Interprets
f-100 f 100
48-g 48 g
48@g 48 g

Why is this a problem?

This becomes a problem because it makes some keywords in wikis unsearchable. For example, if you write a page about a weapon called the AK-47, you will never be able to find the "AK-47". This is because the search translates AK-47 into AK47, and the term "AK47" is not indexed in the wiki.

Possible solutions for developers

  1. Transform the indexing engine into one that indexes searchable terms. That is, if AK-47 appears in an article, it is indexed as AK47 so that it can be found when searching
  2. Allow non-alphanumeric characters to be included in the search engine

Reported by

KnightTemplarKnightTemplar in this post

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