Upgrade StorageStringing together advanced searches
I encountered something puzzling while running a series of advanced searches. I am trying to find all items in a specific collection where the attachment contains any of several terms. That is, the search logic is <"Collection is X" AND "Attachment Content contains (A OR B OR C OR D)">. I'll describe what I did conceptually using familiar Boolean terms rather than the any/all conditions the Zotero interface actually uses.
First, I created a saved search for:
(1) <"Attachment Content contains A OR B OR C OR D">
then another saved search for:
(2) <"Collection is (1)" AND "Collection is X">
The contents of (1) and (2) were the same, so that didn't work. Later, on a whim, I tried:
(3) <"Collection is X" AND "Collection is (1)">
and that DID give me what I was looking for. One wouldn't normally expect the order of a series of conjuncts to make a difference.
My immediate problem is solved, but thought I'd flag this to see if anyone can explain why this works the way it does, and in case it helps anyone else facing a similar problem.
First, I created a saved search for:
(1) <"Attachment Content contains A OR B OR C OR D">
then another saved search for:
(2) <"Collection is (1)" AND "Collection is X">
The contents of (1) and (2) were the same, so that didn't work. Later, on a whim, I tried:
(3) <"Collection is X" AND "Collection is (1)">
and that DID give me what I was looking for. One wouldn't normally expect the order of a series of conjuncts to make a difference.
My immediate problem is solved, but thought I'd flag this to see if anyone can explain why this works the way it does, and in case it helps anyone else facing a similar problem.
I've created an issue to track this, though I don't know when we'll get to it.