n00b boolean brainache

March 5, 2011 12:48 PM

I've been trying to apply the boolean below as a filter for a bunch of .xml files and I'm unable to get it to run properly. Every entity (in this case car manufacturers) appears on a new line. I'm new to boolean search strings and am completely stumped. My main problem is that the car company SEAT is returning all results for the word "seat" as in car seat etc...Obviously the parentheses usually limits the filter to specific models. However, when I run SEAT on it's own it works fine. The problem appear to be that there is an error in my boolean somewhere else, which causes the program I'm running it through to ignore all the boolean completely. Thanks in advance.

Acura
"Alfa Romeo" OR "alfa-romeo"
"Aston Martin" OR "aston-martin"
Audi
Bentley NOT (football OR premier league OR Tottenham OR spurs OR "David Bentley")
BMW
Cadillac
(chevy OR chevrolet OR chevvy) NOT ("chevy chase")
Chrysler
Citroen
Dacia
Daewoo
Daihatsu
Ferrari
Fiat
Ford
Honda NEAR/10 car
Hyundai
Infiniti
Isuzu
Iveco
Jaguar AND (car OR cars OR automob* OR vehicl*)
Jeep AND (car OR cars OR automob* OR vehicl*)
Kia
Lamborghini
Lancia
Land Rover
LDV
Lexus
Lotus
Maserati
Maybach
Mercedes
((mini AND (car OR cars OR automob* OR vehicl*)) OR (mini NEAR/15 "auto show") OR (mini NEAR/15 "motor show") OR (mini NEAR/15 bmw) OR (mini NEAR/15 first) OR (mini NEAR/15 one) OR (mini AND cooper) OR (mini AND countryman) OR (mini AND clubman) OR (mini NEAR/10 car)) NOT (dell OR mac)
Mitsubishi
Nissan
Peugeot
Porsche
Proton NEAR/10 car
Renault
"Rolls-Royce" OR "rolls royce"
Saab
seat AND (ibiza OR leon OR altea OR exeo OR toledo OR alhambra OR cupra OR ecomotive)
Skoda
Smart AND (forfour OR fortwo OR roadster OR brabus OR mhd)
Subaru
Suzuki
Tata AND (car OR cars OR nano)
Toyota
(vauxhall AND (gm OR "general motors" OR opel OR holden OR vivaro OR agila OR corsa OR meriva OR tigra OR astra OR zafira OR vectra OR signum OR antara OR gtc OR corsavan OR astravan OR vivaro OR movano OR combo OR trixx OR autoshow OR motorshow OR "auto show" OR "motor show" OR car OR cars OR truck OR trucks OR van OR vans OR suv OR vehicle OR vehicles OR automotive OR automobile OR automaker OR automakers OR motor OR motors OR convertible OR sedan OR saloon OR coupe)) NOT ("vauxhall bridge" OR "vauxhall tavern" OR (vauxhall NEAR/10 tube))
Volkswagen
Volvo

posted by hairgelburrito to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Newbie boolean brainache indeed! What are these XML files? Post a snippet from one! What program are you using for this search?
posted by gregglind at 1:08 PM on March 5, 2011

Do you mean to "or" all the lines together? If so, then put each line in parentheses, then put ' OR' at the end of each line except the final one (minus the single quotes, which I use here for clarity).
posted by amtho at 1:12 PM on March 5, 2011

Another possibility: is the program you're using case-sensitive? If that's so, then 'Seat' might work better for you than 'seat'.
posted by amtho at 1:14 PM on March 5, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks for your responses. I should have mentioned that the searches are not case-sensitive, I'm pretty sure I'm simply not closing a double parenthesis etc. Each line is in this case a car brand, and the qualifiers models.
posted by hairgelburrito at 1:31 PM on March 5, 2011

Looks like you're missing a closing paren on:

((mini AND (car OR cars OR automob* OR vehicl*)) OR (mini NEAR/15 "auto show") OR (mini NEAR/15 "motor show") OR (mini NEAR/15 bmw) OR (mini NEAR/15 first) OR (mini NEAR/15 one) OR (mini AND cooper) OR (mini AND countryman) OR (mini AND clubman) OR (mini NEAR/10 car)) NOT (dell OR mac)
posted by SemiSophos at 4:43 PM on March 5, 2011

Actually, nope, I'm wrong.
posted by SemiSophos at 4:44 PM on March 5, 2011