Search in field, second line, gives no result

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1

in a shared deck (Spanisch 5000) there is one field (“Spanisch”) in which on the second line some entries have the expression “(irr.)”, meaning an irregular verb.
the html editor in the browser shows for example:

ser
(irr.)

there are at least 160 notes with this remark.
but i am not able to do a search and make a filtered deck.
any hint or help?

2

It would help if you shared what you are actually entering into the search bar, but I’m guessing it’s got to do with not escaping the brackets. "(irr.)" should work, as long as there is no embedded HTML.

See here:
https://docs.ankiweb.net/searching.html#matching-special-characters

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3

i tried the following variants in the search bar of the browser:

  • “deck:Spanisch 5000” “Spanisch:(irr.)”

  • “deck:Spanisch 5000” “Spanisch:
    (irr.)”

  • “Spanisch: (irr.)”

  • “Spanisch:(irr.)”

  • “(irr.)”

nothing works - i just don’t know why.

4

Field searches require a full match: Searching - Anki Manual
So your first four searches are not expected to match. But if "(irr.)" doesn’t work either, maybe there’s some HTML in between. Open one of the notes in the editor and have a look at it in the HTML editor (Ctrl+Shift+X).
I assume you tried disabling add-ons and use a recent Anki version.

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5

thanks for the hint re search in fields. so i tried

Spanisch:* (irr.) *

and this one works: 160 entries!

thanks again …

6

That’s not what you want though. It means “any note with a ‘Spanisch’ field and ‘irr.’ in any field”. I really advise you to check out the documentation I’ve linked.

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7

i really don’t understand what you mean.
i checked with the following searches:

    • (irr.) * => 160 cards

  • Spanisch:* (irr.) * => 160 cards

  • “deck:Spanisch 5000” Spanisch:* (irr.) * => 160 cards

which only means that “(irr.)” only exists in one field (Spanisch) in the deck “Spanisch 5000” - logical, not?
that is exactly the reason why i wanted to separate those irregular verbs: because “(irr.)” is a unique attribute.
which means - like written in the manual: front:*dog* find notes with Front field containing dog somewhere

what don’t i get?

8

Spaces separate and brackets group search terms, unless they are quoted. That means Spanisch:* (irr.) * is the same as "Spanisch:*" AND "irr." (* by itself matches everything). What you probably mean to search for is "Spanisch:*(irr.)*".

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9

exactly!
but when i type in this search term in the search bar, then after ENTER two spaces are automatically added and the term looks like that:
Spanisch:* (irr.) *

It was my problem not to close my search term in quotation marks. finally i understand …

thanks for your patience!

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