Query syntax for local data sources

4CAT supports advanced query syntax for locally stored sources, based on the sphinx search library. This can be used to make queries more precise, much like the syntax Google and other search engines support.

Sphinx is tuned so that search queries are completed relatively quickly. This comes at the expense of accuracy in some edge cases, with more posts being returned than match your query. You can use filter processors (such as Filter by words or phrases) to further narrow down your results.

Note that many of 4CAT's sources use external APIs to collect data, and text search is handled through their API parameters. This means those searches function differently compared to 4CAT's own text search functions as described on this page. Puhshift's Reddit search, for instance, will have different syntax.

The following syntax for this data source is supported:

Note that for punctuation and non-alphanumeric characters, it is often necessary to wrap them in "quotation marks"; if not, they will be ignored by the search engine.

Quotations are especially important to keep in mind when searching for URLs. If you do not wrap these in quotation marks, their parts will be interpreted as separate words, e.g. http://www.google.com will be interpreted as a query for posts containing http, www, google and com if not quoted.