How can I search a sequence of keywords on this forum?

[Hobbyst46]

This may be a silly question, but nevertheless.
I can search a single keyword, but if I try to search a sequence, for example: dry lens
It will find all occurences of dry as well as lens. As separate keywords.
So I tried "dry lens" 'dry lens' same result.
Tried (dry lens) - same result.
Tried dry+lens - same result.
Then how can I retrieve only the sequence?
Thanks in advance for solution.

[MichaelG.]

Not a silly question at all
... it seems that the problem may be that the word 'lens' is being deliberately ignored by the search engine.

Search term used: dry lens ignored: lens

This results in the strange situation that:
... posts containg both words are found
... posts containing 'dry' are found
... posts containing 'lens' but not 'dry' are NOT found

???

MichaelG.

[Hobbyst46]

MichaelG

So instead, I tried "focal length".
The search engine finds the combination "focal length" as well as independently the single words, namely "focal" separate from "length"
whereas I am only interested in the specific combination or phrase

[MichaelG.]

So ... the search engine does not work in the way we reasonably wish it did.

Search for all terms or use query as entered

'use query as entered' seems to offer a reasonable expectation
... but that 'or' seems to be of the 'inclusive' variety.

Sorry, I have no idea how to fix it.

MichaelG.
.
.
Edit: It doesn't seem to help, but, for reference here is the phpBB guidance:
https://www.phpbb.com/support/docs/en/3 ... _advanced/

[mrsonchus]

Hi,

I searched for dry lens with the option to return 'all available' characters checked to give what is a result as mentioned of not only the exact phrase but the individual words also....

Then I use the Chrome CTRL-F (find on page) command to find the whole phrase dry lens within the page of results and this did find them and enable them to be stepped-through.

A messy workaround.....

Silly that the complete phrase can't be returned though with a forum search....

screen-snip

ws_search phrases.jpg (350.25 KiB) Viewed 5220 times

This allows the posts with the whole phrase to be stepped through without scrolling through the whole lot including the single-word results.

An untidy solution but seems to work.

[Hobbyst46]

Thanks John B.
Yes, the way you show works, and is not very convenient.

I searched out the web and found that the site engine, named phpBB, simply does not support phrase search, so this problem is common among all forums and bulletin boards that use it...