Regular expressions with google web search

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
5 replies · 2K views
serbring
Messages
267
Reaction score
2
Hi all,

Cam google web search accepet regular expressions? Especially, I need to search strings with any number between two words, for example: "vehicle runs at XXX km/h".

Thank you
 
Physics news on Phys.org
"vehicle runs at *** km/h" returns entries containing

vehicle runs at less than 60 km/h
Vehicle runs at speed of 70 km/h

and so on
 
DrSteve said:
"vehicle runs at *** km/h" returns entries containing

vehicle runs at less than 60 km/h
Vehicle runs at speed of 70 km/h

and so on

Three * means you are searching for three separate words. Indeed, both "less than 60" and "spee of 70" contain three words.
This is a straightforward case, because "*" followed by a unit (km/h) push the "*" to be a number.
Borek said:
As far as I know - no. Actually google engine is quite limited - it has to, to be so fast.

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=en

Thank you. I haven't found that list. But I think it might be solved by forcing a reasonable number range. As example:
"Engine runs *"-> 150'000 results
"Engine runs 1800..2500" -> 10'000 results and "engine runs" is actually followed by numbers.

Thanks
 
The .. operator creates a numeric search range .

eg Cameras £50..£300

Problem is that not much online technical data will be in a suitable format for Google to find .

Using search formats like ' Effect of speed on engine performance ' or ' drag on vehicles at high speed ' will usually generate much more information but you will then have to sift it manually .

http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html
 
Nidum said:
The .. operator creates a numeric search range .

eg Cameras £50..£300

Problem is that not much online technical data will be in a suitable format for Google to find .

Using search formats like ' Effect of speed on engine performance ' or ' drag on vehicles at high speed ' will usually generate much more information but you will then have to sift it manually .

http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html

Thanks,
you're on right and the link is really precious