It frequently happens that I want to find my old answer. The list of answers on my page consists of 35 pages, so searching in it using my browser search is too time consuming. On the other hand, if I enter the search terms in the "questions search" it does not show me those questions where the terms occur in answers. I understand that expanding capabilities of search can be difficult, though very desirable. But it seems that adding a feature which displays all answers of a given user in one page (instead of in 35 pages) must be easy.
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asked May 17, 2020 at 23:12
1 Answer
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This isn't exactly about the feature you asked for, but let me leave here a brief comment. (Hopefully, some of the information here might be useful.)
One possibility to get list of all your answers (or questions) in a more compact form then here on the site is to use SEDE. (With the caveat that the data in SEDE are only updated once a week, so you won't find the most recent posts there.)
Basic knowledge of SQL helps when using SEDE - but many various queries already exist, so often you can find some queries and simply change the parameters.
For example, query listing all answers by a specific user. Similar query which also shows tags or body of the answer.
You can also check all questions, and perhaps include the body.
Let us compare what some search result look like if you use SEDE and if you user built-in search engine.
You can limit the search to a specific user by using user:25510 or simply user:me if you're looking for your posts. (If you go to your profile page or to the profile of some other user, the modifier user:userid is already prefilled in the search box.) You can restrict the search to answers/questions using is:a or is:q.
To get corresponding results in SEDE you need to specify this in the query. (For example, in the table Posts we have PostTypeId=1 for questions and PostTypeId=2 for answers.)
You can find answers by a specific users in some given tag: SEDE, search. You can search for some specific phrase in answers: SEDE, search.
Similarly, you can look for questions in a specific tag: SEDE, search. Or for questions with some specific phrase: SEDE, search.
I will add that the SEDE queries linked above only search in the body. The table Posts contains also the field Title, which can be used if you want to search for posts using the title. Here are queries searching for questions and answers of a specific user based on a word/phrase contained in the title.
Further pointers with some information on searching:
- Help center; you can find some information also by clicking on "Advanced Search Tips" after you search for something.
- Keyword Search of the User's own (my own) questions or answers on MathOverflow Meta
- How to search on this site? on Mathematics Meta
answered May 18, 2020 at 8:09
user:25510 "bezout theorem", which should result in mathoverflow.net/search?q=user%3A25510+%22bezout+theorem%22, with two hits from 2014. $\endgroup$user25510in your fisrt comment. You should useuser:25510instead (with colon). In fact, if you go to your profile, this is already prepared there. See also: How to intersect users and tags? and How do I search my own answers. on Mathematics Meta. (The first link has also a screenshot, also it is done in the old interface.) $\endgroup$