20030922: Herbal Tutor search bug

Search bug - Multiple expressions containing parentheses

Sometimes when performing a search using the possibilities button to select multiple search expressions, a syntax error message will display. For example, by choosing the two search expressions from the possibilities menu "Liver Fire" and "Liver Yang Rising (Ascending)" and then performing the search, the syntax error message will appear:


"Liver Fire
^
(0) Matching quote was not found.

This bug occurs only when choosing multiple search expressions from the possibilities menu, when at least one of these expressions contains parentheses (or other characters that are used as boolean search operators). This bug does not occur on Macintosh computers since Macintosh only allows you to choose one expression at a time.

How to avoid this search bug

To avoid this bug you can simply choose the search expressions one at a time. In other words, to search for "Liver Fire" and "Liver Yang Rising (Ascending)" you would click the possibilities button, select "Liver Fire" and then click "OK". You would then repeat this procedure for "Liver Yang Rising (Ascending)".

Why this bug occurs

When there are special characters in the expression that are also used as boolean search operators such as parentheses, quotes are needed to indicate that these characters are part of the expression to search for rather than search operators. The program tries to automatically insert the quotes when necessary but sometimes inserts them in the wrong position causing a syntax error. For example, in the previous example the program inserts the search expressions: "Liver Fire; Liver Yang Rising (Ascending)" when it should have inserted the following expressions:


Liver Fire; "Liver Yang Rising (Ascending)"

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