General searching
If you need to refine and narrow your search, here are some basic tips:
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To search within specific tags, prefix them with tag: followed by the tag. As tag can contain special characters you can surround them with quotes. Examples:
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apple tag:fruit searches for mentions of apple within the fruit tag.
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apple tag:"round fruit" searches for mentions of apple within the round fruit tag.
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To limit your search to just the title of a question, use title: followed by the search term. Likewise, search the content only (excluding the title) with content: followed by the search term. Examples:
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apple searches for mentions of apple in the title of questions or content of posts.
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title:apple searches for mentions of apple only in the title of questions.
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content:apple searches for mentions of apple only in the content of posts.
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To search for questions and answers for a given user you can prefix the username (which is usually used as the login id) with user:. Note as usernames can contain special characters you can use quotes to cover the whole username. Examples:
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user:martin searches for questions and answers created by user martin.
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user:"martin smith" searches for questions and answers created by user martin smith.
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To exclude results from a tag or word, prefix it with - in your query. Examples:
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apple -tag:green finds posts that mention apple and are not in questions tagged as green.
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-apple tag:green finds posts in questions that are tagged as green and do not contain the word apple.
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Adding multiple usernames, tags or words with no prefix to a search means that at least one of them must match. In order to force the matching of more than one word then prefix that word with a +. Note in the case of usernames it is possible to add more than one but the + has no effect. Bear in mind that searching using only negative terms yield no result. Examples:
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green apple finds posts that mention either green or apple.
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+green +apple finds posts that mention both: green and apple.
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user:martin user:peter +tag:fruit +tag:round finds posts from user peter or martin that are tagged with fruit and round.
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-tag:fruit finds no posts because it is a fully negative search; something needs to be matched in order to be substracted from it.
Additional question filters
Here are some additional search filters that can be applied to the questions matching a search. Note they can not be used in its own.
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To search for posts in questions that have received at least a certain amount of views you can include views: followed by the expected minimum amount of views. Example:
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apple views:100 searches for posts that mention apple in questions with at least 100 views.
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To search for posts in questions with at least a certain score you can include score: followed by the expected minimum score. Example:
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apple score:10 searches for posts that mention apple in questions with a score of 10 or higher.
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To search for posts in questions with at least a certain amount of answers you can include answers: followed by the expected minimum amount of answers. Example:
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apple answers:2 searches for posts that mention apple in questions that contain at least 2 answers.
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To search for posts in questions that have an accepted answer (or not) you can include isaccepted: followed by true or false. Example:
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apple isaccepted:true searches for posts that mention apple in questions with an accepted answer.
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To search for posts in questions that have been closed (or not) you can include isclosed: followed by true or false. Example:
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apple isclosed:true searches for posts that mention apple in questions that have been closed.