- Basic File
Search
The "Basic File Search" allows you to search for files based on
text in the file description or the file name or both. This search
can be narrowed to a particular file section and ordered by Date,
Downloads, File Name, File Section or Size. The results of that
ordering can then be listed in descending or ascending order.
There are five fields associated with the Basic Search. Three of
these files are drop down box selections and two are used for you
to input your text. Here is an explaination of each field and how
it works.
Search only file section:
This field is simply a drop down box that allows you to select
the file section you would like to perform your search. The default
is to to search All File Sections. By selecting one of the file
sections you are asking the search to only search the files in that
particular file section.
Search for text:
This field looks for words, partial words or phrases to narrow
your search. The text you type in this field is not case sensitive
(in otherwords you don't need to worry about capitalizing words).
This field is based on the "http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/fulltext-boolean.html">MySQL
Match/Against Boolean Full-Text Search. Please note however
that your input has been modified to force the AND function on each
word in this field. MySQL does support the * wildcard character at
the end of the word with this type search.
Here are some example uses of this field at the time of this
writing:
Typing: aircraft
Results: 26,436 files that have the word aircraft in the
description
Typing: aircraft boeing
Results: 4,389 files that have the words aircraft AND boeing
somewhere in the description
Typing: "aircraft boeing"
Results: 130 files that have the phrase "aircraft boeing" in the
description ignoring any special characters such as ":" or "-" or
"." etc that might be in front of them, between them or after
them.
Typing: air
Results: 21,407 files that have the word air in the description.
Files with "Air Combat", "King Air" and "Air Transport" showed up
in this search because it is a full word search.
Typing: air*
Results: 77,831 files that have the partial or complete word "air"
in the description. This includes files with "aircraft", "airport",
or just "air" in the description.
Filename Search
This field allows you to narrow your search to particular
filenames. It is based on the "http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/string-comparison-functions.html#operator_like">
MySQL "LIKE" comparison and can be used with single and
multiple chacter wildcards using the "?" and "*" characters
respectively. In otherwords "*" matches any number of characters,
and "?" matches exactly one character. The "_" (single character
match) and "%" (multiple character match) also work because these
are the native characters used by MySQL for these wildcard
characters. Any combination of these wildcards can be used to get
the results you want in the filename field. You may also combine
the filename field along with the "search for text" field to narrow
your search even further. Here are some examples.
Typing: boeing*
Results: 14 files that have filenames starting with the text
"boeing"
Typing: est*
Results: 27 files that have the filenames starting with the text
"est"
Typing: est?3*
Results: 7 files that start with the letters "est" have any
character as the 4th character, have a "3" as the next character
and any characters after that.
Now lets narrow our search to files that meet the above condition
but also have the word "aircraft" in the description.
Typing: aircraft (in the "Search for text field")
Typing: est?3* (in the "File name" field")
Results: 3 files meet our condition and they are: est733.zip,
est735-1.zip, and ests340.zip
Finding files that have text in the middle of the filename can be
done with the "*" wildcard on each side of the text.
Typing: *air*
Results: 1,712 files meet this condition. File names like,
"airship1.zip", "airport4.zip", "ithair.zip" and "usair732.zip" as
only a few examples.
Sort file list by
This field allows you to sort the results of your search by
Date, Downloads, File Name, File Section, or Size. You simply drop
down the box and select what type of sort you would like your
results to use. These sorted results can also be further organized
in ascending or descending order by using the drop down box to
select one of those options.
- Advanced File
Search
The "Advanced File Search" is an extension of the "Basic
Search". It allows you to do the same search as the "Basic Search"
but with the ability to use six more fields to narrow your search
in different ways. This search allows the mixing of phrases, words,
eliminating files with words you would like to exclude in the
results, and using the OR function in your search. Since the
Advanced Search is an extension of the "Basic Search" be sure that
you read up on the "Basic Search" first and undertand how to use
it. Only the additional features and differences will be described
here.
The "Search only file section", "File name", "Sort file list by"
and "order" fields all work the same as the "Basic File" search.
Please refer to that section to get a better understanding of what
can be done using these fields.
all these words
This field is worded a little different but is used in the same
way as the "Search for text" field on the "Basic Search" page. Keep
in mind that words are force ANDed together in this field and that
you can use the "*" multicharacter wildcard at the end of words.
Here are a few examples that resulted at the time this help was
written.
Typing: aircraft
Results: 26,449 files returned with the word aircraft somewhere in
the description.
Typing: aircraft boeing
Results: 4,420 files returned with the word aircraft AND boeing
some place in the description.
Shortcut for doing mixed phrases and words in the "all these words"
field
Typing: aircraft boeing "routes between"
Results: 6 files that have the word aircraft AND boeing AND the
phrase "routes between" somewhere in the description. Note here
that you must use the double quote characters around your
phase.
this exact wording or phrase
This field is provided to allow you to search for a single
phrase as part of your search condition. This field DOES NOT use
the double quotes around the phase. Simply type the phrase you want
included in your search and all results will be required to have
that phrase in the description. An example of the same search above
done using the exact wording or phrase field would look like
this
Typing: aircraft boeing (in the "all these words" field)
Typing: routes between (in the "exact wording or phrase" field)
Results: Same 6 files that returned in the search above
one or more of these words
These fields provide the OR function in your search. This allows
you to search for a particular word OR any other word. An example
of this might be if you wanted to find all the files that had the
word "Boeing" or "United" in the description.
Typing: boeing (in one of the OR fields)
Typing: united (in one of the other OR fields)
Results: 28,298 files that have the word "boeing" or "united"
somewhere in the description
Sometimes you may feel confused by the results. Searching on
just "united" results in 2,085 files on the site today. Searching
on "boeing" results in 27,038 files. This adds up to 29,123 files
which doesn't seem to match the results returned when they are
searched together. Using the "all these words" field, and looking
for results with "boeing" AND "united" both in the description
results in 825 files. Subtacting that from the 29,123 gives you
28,298 files that had either "boeing" OR "united" in the results.
Keep in mind that the OR function will show you files that have
both names in the description as well as either name. In this case
it was 825 files.
any of these unwanted words
This field can be useful in eliminating single or multiple words
that you do not want in the description of your search results.
Typing: boeing (in the "all these words" field)
Typing: fs2004 (in the "any of these unwanted words")
Results: 15,234 files that have the word boeing in the description
but DOES NOT have the word fs2004.
Typing: boeing 737 (in the "all these words" field)
Typing: fs2004 (in the "any of these unwanted words")
Results: 5,753 files that have boeing AND 737 in the description
but DOES NOT have the word fs2004
Typing: boeing 737 (in the "all these words" field)
Typing: fs2004 900 (in the "any of these unwanted words")
Results: 5,542 files that have boeing AND 737 in the description
but DOES NOT have the words fs2004 OR 900.