Solved How To Search Email by (VB- Explained.

janrif

~~I think this is a bug.~~

Search Email by Subject = Bug Number beginning with (VB-
This doesn't seem to be possible.
Try it.

yojimbo274064400

That explains all and why this is not bug.

Parenthesis are special characters when used in search term and must be enclosed by quotation marks¹ when being searched for. For example, if there exist the following Subject titles:

aaaa
bbbb
(aaaa)

then a search term of subject:(aaaa OR bbbb) returns:

aaaa
bbbb
(aaaa)

and subject:(aaaa OR bbbb) NOT "(aaaa)":

aaaa
bbbb

―
¹Be aware that search patterns less than 3 character are ignored AFAICS, resulting in subject:(aaaa OR bbbb) NOT "(a" returning:

aaaa
bbbb
(aaaa)

whereas subject:(aaaa OR bbbb) NOT "(aa" returns the expected:

aaaa
bbbb

mib2berlin

@janrif
Hi, no problem, Windows 11, Vivaldi 6.6.3291.3.

yojimbo274064400

@mib2berlin, to reproduce issue non-alphanumerical characters must be included, i.e. VB- works but (VB- returns no results despite matching subject text.

Ayespy

@janrif Works a treat, here.

I can search either a number, or the prefix VB-

Ayespy

@janrif @yojimbo274064400 Why on earth are you including a parenthesis in your search? Seems both counter-intuitive and completely unnecessary.

mib2berlin

Hm, if you set the parenthesis at the end it work too, no idea if this is a bug, but I would never use it if I have the number.

Cheers, mib

yojimbo274064400

@mib2berlin,

That explains all and why this is not bug.

Parenthesis are special characters when used in search term and must be enclosed by quotation marks¹ when being searched for. For example, if there exist the following Subject titles:

aaaa
bbbb
(aaaa)

then a search term of subject:(aaaa OR bbbb) returns:

aaaa
bbbb
(aaaa)

and subject:(aaaa OR bbbb) NOT "(aaaa)":

aaaa
bbbb

―
¹Be aware that search patterns less than 3 character are ignored AFAICS, resulting in subject:(aaaa OR bbbb) NOT "(a" returning:

aaaa
bbbb
(aaaa)

whereas subject:(aaaa OR bbbb) NOT "(aa" returns the expected:

aaaa
bbbb

yojimbo274064400

@janrif, try quoting search term, i.e. "(VB-"

janrif

@yojimbo274064400 Thanks for your time for complete explanation (above) & thanks for this tip which worked perfectly. Much appreciated.

gmg

@yojimbo274064400
Thank you. Great answer. I'd just fixed the nested parentheses in 6.6 and you're correct about everything.
If you run into any issues there you can ping me.

¹Be aware that search patterns less than 3 character are ignored AFAICS

You are also correct here. Another good thing to know is that currently a search cannot start with NOT. You have to search for something followed by NOT. For example: NOT something gives no results while what NOT something will give results.