# Searching for a string of words

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searching-for-a-string-of-words/150253>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [January 22, 2003, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searching-for-a-string-of-words/150253 "2003-01-22T17:24:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searching-for-a-string-of-words/150253/1 "2003-01-22T17:24:13Z")

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How do I serach for a specific string of words. In this case I want to find threads with the words

**Operational Support Systems**

exactly in that order. I always seem to get a list of threads that contain only one of these words even if I use the AND operator between them. 😕

Thanks in advance for the help!  
**zoid**

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searching-for-a-string-of-words/150253/2 "2003-01-22T18:16:48Z")

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I don’t believe that the SDMB search function has that capability. If you’re looking for older threads, try using the search function on [boardreader.com](http://www.boardreader.com/). They store the text from the SDMB, as well as other boards, on their site. Just add the string _straightdope_ to your query to get threads from the SDMB exclusively. In other words, if you’re looking for the string _Operational Support Systems_, then search for _straightdope “Operational Support Systems”_.