Feature Proposal: New $count variable in format argument of formatted searches

Motivation

This was needed to implement a Blog system in pure wiki, but has many uses

Description

This allows to print the number of times a given regexp matches. Example:

%SEARCH{... format="... $count(.*?(---[+][+][+][+] ).*) comments"}%

-- ColasNahaboo - 13 May 2005

Impact and Available Solutions

Documentation

To be added to the documentation of Search in FormattedSearch, after the row for $pattern:

Examples

see doc

Implementation

• FormattedSearchCountVariableV1.patch: patch to implement this feature in cairo

This feature could be made part of a more general mechanism, if ever designed. Maybe a search&replace variable?

Discussion:

How did I miss this? This really is a very useful feature. In considering how to implement FacetedNavigation, I realized this would be essential. I'd like to get this into DevelopBranch!

-- LynnwoodBrown - 24 Aug 2005

How do I count complete %SEARCH hits in the first place, that is only get the %NTOPICS w/o any other output? Useful when (blog) comments are in separate topics each.

-- MichaelDaum - 25 Aug 2005

Uh, got it:

%CALC{"$LISTSIZE(%SEARCH{"BlogComment" 
   web="Blog" scope="topic" 
   format="$topic" separator=", " nonoise="on"}%)"}%

-- MichaelDaum - 25 Aug 2005

But actually, I'd like to have a counter varialbe that enumerates the topics found, that is $hit is 1 for the first hit, 2 for the second and so on. Enumeration should take place AFTER ordering, obviously. Well, this is quite different to the proposal here (in-topic pattern counter). Should do a separate FeatureRequest ...

Hm, the hit counter could be done using css3 selectors but very few browsers implement that.

-- MichaelDaum - 25 Aug 2005

Lynnwood, you could also use the FormQueryPlugin's %MATCHCOUNT% variable that does just this.

(On top of that it's fast but that's off topic )

-- JosMaccabiani - 25 Aug 2005

Thanks Michael and Jos for the excellent solutions. Once again, I'm convinced that with enough work, you can get CALC to do just about anything. And FormQueryPlugin definitely seems like the way to go for implementing FacetedNavigation, given the number of simultaneous searches this requires.

Still, it seems to me that this feature is useful enough that adding a simple variable to search or formatted search would be worth exploring.

-- LynnwoodBrown - 25 Aug 2005

See also: CountingHeadings

-- ChristopherOezbek - 15 Sep 2005

I would like to propose that this topic be renamed to FormattedSearchRegexCountVariable since that would more accurately describe this feature as implemented. My motivation is to submit a feature request for a simple count variable for FormattedSearch - i.e. returns the number of hits from a search - which I believe the current name of this topic implies.

-- LynnwoodBrown - 23 Feb 2006

Renamed.

-- ArthurClemens - 23 Feb 2006

Thank-you Arthur! Now I can submit a FeatureRequest for a simple FormattedSearchCountVariable.

-- LynnwoodBrown - 23 Feb 2006