Bug? Multiworld Search Limited to A Single Field Is Not Working

Anki Help
1

I’m on Windows running Anki Version ⁨26.08.1 and I also use the latest version of AnkiDroid. I am having the same problem on both platforms. I think it might be a bug.

When I limit my search to a single field with one word without spaces (for example → AnimalField:*dog* ), it works perfectly fine.

However, when I search for a multiworld string that has spaces within a single field (for example → AnimalField:*"hunting dog"* ), instead of showing me just the cards with the text hunting dog in the AnimalField, it shows me all the cards that have an instance of hunting dog no matter what field it is in instead of only in AnimalField.

What that means is that these two searches AnimalField:*"hunting dog"* and "hunting dog" actually return the same results in search.

In summary, Anki isn’t limiting my search to a single field correctly and is finding matches in any of the fields when the search term contains any spaces.

Can anyone help me? Thank you so much!

2

Take a look at how your search string adjusts after you run it. That might explain better how your search is being parsed. Using your example, I suspect that –
AnimalField:*"hunting dog"*
– turns into –
AnimalField:* "hunting dog" *
– which means search for wildcard in that field, the text “hunting dog” anywhere, and wildcard anywhere.

See – Searching - Anki Manual :

Unlike the previous search examples, searching in fields requires an exact match by default.

One of these will probably work for you –
AnimalField:"*hunting dog*" [wildcards inside the quotes]
or
"AnimalField:*hunting dog*" [quotes surrounding the entire search term – Searching - Anki Manual ]