# Help needed on searching

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-on-searching/121317>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [July 29, 2002, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-on-searching/121317 "2002-07-29T02:45:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MrWhy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9f8e36/32.png) [@MrWhy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrWhy)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2002, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-on-searching/121317/1 "2002-07-29T02:45:04Z")

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How do I search for a phrase rather than a set of words?

I tried to look for threads relating to the book _The Case for Christ_ , using quotes, ie I used:

“The Case for Christ”

but I got a whole bunch of threads with “Case”, “Christ”, “The” etc in them.

How can I look for the whole title?

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**Author:** ![donkeyoatey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@donkeyoatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/donkeyoatey)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2002, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-on-searching/121317/2 "2002-07-29T03:38:27Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Basic query: separate your search terms with spaces.
> 
> Advanced query: Join words with AND, OR and NOT to control your search in more detail.

The and case and for and christ.  
I tried it and this thread is on top of the list  
😉

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2002, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-on-searching/121317/3 "2002-07-29T06:49:47Z")

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The search engine here doesn’t do phrase searches, though. Unfortunately, though, it’s what we’re stuck with, until and unless vBulletin does a better job with it in the next version.

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**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2002, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-on-searching/121317/4 "2002-07-29T18:19:46Z")

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😕

Why does a search for “The and case and for and christ” work? It’s got two search terms with less than 4 letters. If I search “xxx yyyy” I get an error message because “xxx” is fewer than four letters.

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**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2002, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-on-searching/121317/5 "2002-07-29T19:35:37Z")

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rsa - I would guess that the software changes “the AND case AND for AND christ” to a search for “case AND christ”, removing the three-letter words.