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How do I search?

Enter search terms in the search box that appears on the center-left of the top bar on every page, and press Enter.

(On small screens, you may need to activate the search button magnifying glass symbol to show the textbox first.)

If you need to refine and narrow your search, here are some basic tips:

  • To search within specific tag(s), enter them in square brackets: [maintenance] seat searches for mentions of "seat" within the [maintenance] tag.
  • To find a specific phrase, enter it in quotes: "flat tire".
  • To limit your search to just the title of a question, use title: followed by the search term. Likewise, search the body only (exclude the title) with body:"phrase here".
  • To search only within code blocks: code:"new" to search code within posts for the word "new".
  • To search just your posts: user:me training searches all of your posts for the word "training".
  • To exclude results from a tag, term or phrase, prefix it with - in your query: waffles -unicorns finds posts that mention tasty batter-based breakfasts without including mythical creatures, while [laurel] -[hardy] includes only posts pertaining to the first half of the classic comedy couple.
  • Use wildcard searches to broaden results; add an asterisk (*) anywhere in the word, like encour* or Ex*nge.

Advanced Search Options:

We offer a number of advanced search operators to help you find very specific information.

Range Operators

To search for only questions that fall within a particular range for score, number of answers, or number of views, you can enter an upper or lower parameter, or a range.

  • score:-1 or score:-1.. will both return posts with a score greater than or equal to -1
  • views:500..1000 or views:500-1000 will return posts with 500 to 1000 views
  • answers:..3 will return questions with 3 or fewer answers

Dates

You can use specific dates or date ranges to narrow results down to posts created or active within a certain time period, using the following operators:

  • created: to specify when the posts were created
  • lastactive: for posts active in a specified time period

Dates can be entered in the following formats:

  • Absolute dates:

    • year only – e.g., created:2012..2013 searches posts created from January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2013; created:2012 searches posts created from January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2012.
    • year and month – e.g., created:2012-04..2012-05 searches posts created between April 1, 2012 and May 31, 2012.
    • day, month, and year – e.g., lastactive:2012-04-03 searches posts who were last active between 12:00 AM on April 3, 2012 and 11:59 PM on April 3, 2012.

  • Relative dates:

    • 1y, 1m, and 1d are shorthand for "last year", "last month", and "yesterday" – e.g., if today is April 15, created:1m searches posts created between March 1 and March 31. (You can substitute any number for 1 to look back that many years, months, or days.)

    • Relative dates in a range (1y..) look back to the same date in the previous period – e.g., if you want to see all the posts active in the last three months, use lastactive:3m.. On April 15, that will show posts from January 15 up to the most recently active. You can close the range as well: lastactive:3m..1m.

Please note that all times are recorded in UTC; the results may not match your timezone.

User Operators

You can also limit searches to a specific user's content (your own or someone else's). You will need the user id to search another user's posts.

  • user:mine or user:me (or any user id) returns only your posts (or only the posts from whichever user whose id you entered)
  • in:saves returns posts that you have saved
  • intags:mine returns only posts that appear in tags that you are watching. (If you don't have any watched tags, this operator does nothing. For better results, update your watched tags.)

Boolean Operators

The following search operators can be used with values of yes/no, true/false, or 1/0 (each pair behaves the same):

  • isaccepted: yes/true/1 returns only answers that have been marked "accepted"; no/false/0 returns only answers that are not marked accepted.
  • hascode: yes/true/1 returns only posts that contain code blocks; no/false/0 returns only posts that contain no code.
  • hasaccepted: yes/true/1 returns only questions that have accepted answers; no/false/0 returns only questions with no accepted answers.
  • isanswered: yes/true/1 returns only questions that have at least one positively-scored answer; no/false/0 returns only questions with no positively-scored answers.
  • closed: yes/true/1 returns only questions that are closed; no/false/0 excludes closed questions from the search.
  • duplicate: yes/true/1 returns questions that have been marked as a duplicate of another question; no/false/0 excludes duplicate questions from the search.
  • migrated: yes/true/1 returns only questions that have been migrated to a different site; no/false/0 excludes migrated questions from the search.
  • locked: yes/true/1 returns only locked posts (which have edits, votes, comments, and new answers disabled); no/false/0 returns only posts that are not locked.
  • hasnotice: yes/true/1 returns only posts with a notice shown below them; no/false/0 returns only posts that do not have a notice applied.
  • wiki: yes/true/1 returns only community wiki posts; no/false/0 returns only non-community wiki posts.

OR operator

To combine results from multiple tags, separate the tag names (enclosed in square brackets) with the word "or": [widgets] or [geegaws] returns questions tagged with either tag.

Miscellaneous Operators

  • url:"example.com" searches for posts containing the url "example.com"
  • is:question narrows results down to just questions, and is:answer returns only answers
  • inquestion:50691 restricts the search to the question with id 50691. If you are searching using the search box on a question page, you can use inquestion:this to restrict results to the post you are already viewing.

Collectives

  • collective:"Name" searches for posts within the collective "Name"
  • collective:-"Name" searches for posts and excludes those within the collective "Name" from results
  • is:article searches for articles

Deleted Posts (requires 10,000 reputation)

When you earn the Access to Moderator Tools privilege, you may search your own deleted posts by using the deleted: operator.

  • deleted:1 searches only your deleted posts
  • deleted:all searches both deleted and not-deleted posts that you've authored
  • deleted:0 searches only not-deleted posts that you've authored (effectively the same as user:me)

Site moderators may use this operator to search all posts on the site, including those owned by other users.

Staging Ground Posts (requires Staging Ground access)

When you author a question in the Staging Ground, you may search your own Staging Ground posts by using the staging-ground: operator.

  • staging-ground:1 or sg:1 searches only your own Staging Ground posts

Site moderators and Staging Ground reviewers may use this operator to search all Staging Ground posts on the site, including those owned by other users.