question re: search

[tavor 668]

I wish to run a search query to find notes tagged !!Daily OR !1-Now OR is due today (i.e., reminderTime = today).

If I search:  any: tag:!!-Daily tag:!1-Now reminderTime:day

I get what I expected, namely any notes tagged with !!-Daily or !1-Now or due today or due after today. To narrow the search results down to exclude notes due after today, I tried:  any: tag:!!-Daily tag:!1-Now reminderTime:day -reminderTime:day+1

But this returns all the notes in my database, so I assume the any: operator is working on -reminderTime:day+1, which in conjunction with the other search terms, covers every note in my database.

How do I modify the search to exclude notes due after today?

[DTLow 5,736]

14 minutes ago, tavor said:

I tried:  any: tag:!!-Daily tag:!1-Now reminderTime:day -reminderTime:day+1

You can't combine and/or in searches

You used any: (or)
you're trying to add        and -reminderTime:day+1
instead, you're getting       or -reminderTime:day+1  (tasks that don't have     reminderTime:day+1)

[tavor 668]

Right, which is why I wrote:

18 minutes ago, tavor said:

so I assume the any: operator is working on -reminderTime:day+1

So how do I achieve the result I'm looking for?

[DTLow 5,736]

31 minutes ago, tavor said:

Right, which is why I wrote:

So how do I achieve the result I'm looking for?

I actually base my list on reminder date and don't use a !Now tag
Instead of !Now tag, I assign the current date to the task

My search is    reminderOrder:* -reminderTime:day+1 -reminderDoneTime:*

Note, I keep tasks on my list until completed

[jefito 5,589]

Tough one: the only way to impose a range on reminderTime is to use an AND query: "I want notes that are due after this time AND before that time". If you also want to add in notes with a particular tags, then that's an OR query, and as DTLow says, you can't mix AND and OR queries in Evernote (except for certain constrained causes that involve using wildcards on tag names). It would be useful, but you can't. About the only way that I can see how to accomplish this is by hand, say using a special temporary tags (do your reminderTime range AND query first, and tag those notes with a special tag, then execute the OR query like "tag:!!-Daily tag:!1-Now tag:MySpecialTag), or something like that.

[tavor 668]

21 minutes ago, jefito said:

Tough one: the only way to impose a range on reminderTime is to use an AND query: "I want notes that are due after this time AND before that time". If you also want to add in notes with a particular tags, then that's an OR query, and as DTLow says, you can't mix AND and OR queries in Evernote (except for certain constrained causes that involve using wildcards on tag names). It would be useful, but you can't. About the only way that I can see how to accomplish this is by hand, say using a special temporary tags (do your reminderTime range AND query first, and tag those notes with a special tag, then execute the OR query like "tag:!!-Daily tag:!1-Now tag:MySpecialTag), or something like that.

Yeah, that solution would work in a pinch, but it wouldn't work for this application - basically I want to have a saved search to see notes with a TSW When tag and notes with reminder of today. Sounds like I'll have to live with splitting this into 2 saved searches.

It's a little odd that an app that is hailed for its information search/retrieval prowess does not have this fairly basic search ability. Even Craigslist has had this ability for a long time, and they have on the order of 40 employees, so probably fewer than a dozen developers. In other words, if EN wanted to get this done, they could get it done. I suppose they think this isn't a common use case, but if you're selling yourself on information retrieval, you can't limit yourself to run-of-the-mill search use cases.

I suppose EN will eventually build this in because as the number of users with 1k+ or 10k+ notes increases, the desirability of combining OR and AND operations into a search will increase greatly.

[jefito 5,589]

Uh, yeah, you're not alone on that, as a forum search will verify; find one of the several feature requests and add your vote. I've wished for it on occasion myself, but find that the need for it is actually pretty rare in my case. Maybe I just avoid complicated workflows that would require it. BTW, I'd say that Evernote is more hailed hailed for ease of finding things that for sheer search prowess.

At this point, the search language is pretty well set; they seem loath to change it, as it affects all platforms, and any platform that implements some search locally (rather than fetching results from the server) or does anything special with a particular filter (e.g. Windows' search explanation) would need to be modified. Yes, they could do it, if it seemed important enough for a large enough segment of their user base, but so far, no good (and this issue stretches back over 8 years, since I first started using Evernote and interacting with the forum). But as I say, go find a relevant feature request and vote it up -- it would be a good thing to have in the Evernote toolbox.

[tavor 668]

40 minutes ago, jefito said:

But as I say, go find a relevant feature request and vote it up -- it would be a good thing to have in the Evernote toolbox.

Done.

For anyone else who would like to have the ability in Evernote (it exists in MANY places outside EN) to combine AND and OR operations into one search, please upvote here: