Boolean logic in searches

dstillman
This discussion was created from comments split from: New features to Saved Searches.
  • fentonh
    A wish-list feature is the ability to carry out Boolean searches. For example, (RED or YELLOW) AND GREEN.

    Of course it's possible to search for RED or YELLOW, save that search and copy the search hits into a new collection. However, it's not possible to then "search the saved search" for GREEN. Hence, it becomes necessary to repeatedly run the RED or YELLOW to catch new entries, copy into the search results collection and run a separate search for GREEN.

    Do you get what I generally mean?

    Alternatively, if it were possible to save the RED or YELLOW search as a "smart" collection which would automatically update, then this would achieve the same result.

    Or has this request already been addressed?
  • dstillman
    You can generally achieve boolean logic by using nested saved searches, as explained in the previous thread. (Since then saved searches have moved to the "Collection" condition.)
  • fentonh
    Thanks!
  • fentonh
    Hi, there again. Two new questions on search engine use in Zotero, in two separate comments.
    (1) I have created and saved two separate searches. Now I'd like to create a third search which combines features of both of the previous ones. For example,
    Search #1 find "green OR "blue"
    Search #2 find "Volkswagen" OR "Ford"
    Search #3 find ("green OR "blue") AND ("Volkswagen" OR "Ford").

    In one case, I entered 12 different possible conditions - for example, 12 different makes of cars - and in the other two different conditions (e.g. in this example, colors). However, the search wouldn't run - and I was rather patient. Have I reached the limits of Zotero's capacities?
  • fentonh
    (2) - easier to answer. It appears that the searches which one carries out at home do not back up to the website. This is normal, correct?

    Thanks for both comments.
  • bwiernik
    Saved searches are not available on the zotero.org web library, but they do sync between Zotero clients on different computers.
  • dstillman
    @fentonh: For (1), we'd need the exact conditions and operators (but not values) you were using in each search, along with a Report ID after attempting the search.

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