Blogger's database power of OR

Photo: Jason Mrachina (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Blogger is a database that lets you shuffle and filter posts in different ways.

Today we take that to the next level, with logical OR searches on labels A or B (posts with any of the labels).

This is a sequel to the simpler logical AND search: only posts with both labels A and B.

Label Search OR

To find all the posts that have any of the labels A or B, the form of the url is:

myblog.blogspot.com​/search/?q=label:label1|label:label2

(You can use more than two search terms.)

Note that syntax: q=, then label:, then the label name, separated from the next by the | character.

In this case, | means "or."

That is the "pipe" or vertical bar. On many Western keyboards it is the uppercase right-leaning slash (\).

If you have trouble finding it, you can use its hexadecimal code instead: %7C.

It might look garbled (/?q=label:label1%7Clabel:label2) but will work in your browser bar.

Update: As a reader describes in his comment below, one can also use written-word versions of the these operators ("OR" "NOT" "AND").

However, they are case-sensitive and must be separated from the search terms by spaces.

Although the AND search I described previously is a label-search page that uses the "/search/label/" form, this OR search is a general search, though one restricted to labels.

Here is OR in action:

too-clever-by-half.blogspot.com​/search/?q=label:feeds|label:"things that changed"

That's all posts with either label (or both).

Image: Kismalac (public domain)

A OR B

Defined as any posts about feeds or things that changed, or both, together on one page.

Oh yeah. Those quotation marks:

If any of the search terms comprises more than one word, you'll have to put those terms in quotes.

label:"things that changed"

Pretty fussy work, but the point is that once you have constructed the url correctly (and you should test it), it's an accessible page on your blog.

You can link to it, and your readers can view the page with a single click. The page will revise itself whenever you apply or remove any of the labels involved.

That's the power of databases!

Order

The "/search/q=label:" method is a true search, so if you want to link to the search ordered by date, add this to the url:

&by-date=true

The default alternative is an undefined "by relevance" sort, if you are curious to know what Google thinks is "relevant."

Extra Credit

• You can use these methods on more than two labels at a time. 
• The "?q=label:" syntax also works with the "+" operator for logical AND. It's just a bit fussier than the alternative syntax.
• Without the "label:" qualifier, a search term finds posts that contain the word rather than the label. So, you could search for all "things that changed" posts that include the word "Picasaweb." (A word search, without the "label:" qualifier, does not search label names.)
• If you are a Boolean hotshot, you can construct links like "all posts that have the 'attitude' label and at at least one of 'tips' or 'things that changed.'"
• Update: It is also possible to exclude posts from a database search using logical not. "All posts about bread that are not also about cheese."

Use these as you see fit. 

Just remember, with great power comes great responsibility.

Links in the series

• Yes, your blog is a database.
• You can filter on multiple labels: A and B.
• You can filter things out: A but not B.
• You can similarly combine and filter blog feeds.