Statalist The Stata Listserver


[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date index][Thread index]

Re: st: StataCorp Statalist Archives (was: rating responses)


From   [email protected] (Alan Riley)
To   [email protected]
Subject   Re: st: StataCorp Statalist Archives (was: rating responses)
Date   Wed, 18 Jan 2006 12:02:35 -0600

Thomas Steichen ([email protected]) commented on the StataCorp Statalist
archive search engine:
> This comment about making the archive searchable reminded me 
> of a minor frustration with that search tool.  That is, it is
> very difficult to find a particular message with the available
> search tool (even if you know the message is there), mainly 
> because of the limited search options available. It appears every 
> search is of the nature: find messages that contain KEY1 or KEY2 
> or ....  That is, adding keys gets you more message hits, not 
> fewer.  I only say it "appears" that every search is of this 
> nature mainly because the search tool has no documentation.  
> Perhaps there are ways to modify the search... but I have not
> found the technique. 

If Thomas is talking about the search box available at the top
of http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/ then adding more
keys should NOT get more message hits.  Rather, adding
keys should restrict the search.  For example, a search for

   linux

returns 479 results.  A search for

   memory

returns 1381 results.  However, a search for

   linux memory

returns only 83 results.  It returns only results containing
both the words "linux" and "memory".


> And a further thought for StataCorp: I would find some help 
> documentation about the search tool, itself, to be very useful.
> Could some be added to the Archive search page?

Yes, we should do this.  We should also provide a link to the
advanced search page at

   http://www.stata.com/search/advsearch.html

which provides much more control over the way results are matched.
This page is fairly self-explanatory, but it also needs documentation
which we should and will add.

Joe McCrary ([email protected]) mentioned using Google to
find results in the Statalist archives.  Isabel Canette ([email protected])
points out that it is possible to use Google's "site:" restriction
to restrict results to just those within the StataCorp Statalist
archives.  For example

   site:www.stata.com +Bonferroni +regression

Or, even more restrictively

   site:www.stata.com/statalist/archive +Bonferroni +regression

One downside to using Google is that it may not have indexed every
post in the Statalist archives, while the search engine on www.stata.com
is sure to include all messages.


Alan
([email protected])
*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
*   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/



© Copyright 1996–2024 StataCorp LLC   |   Terms of use   |   Privacy   |   Contact us   |   What's new   |   Site index