searching

[major_small]

Just wondering: if you use a search engine that searches for a string as parts of a string (ex: searching for "poly" can return "polymorphism"), which is more efficient--searching with: '0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a e i o u', or '0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z'? (spaces are used to mark the beginning/end of a string)

I figure most results will have a vowel in it, so the second string really doesn't do much that the first doesn't.

btw, these are filenames I'm searching through, and ironically, with the first string I got 1,602 hits, while the second string only got 1,585 hits. there are many factors that could have slanted those numbers though...

also: does anybody happen to know about how many english words there are without vowels?

[Dave Evans]

also: does anybody happen to know about how many english words there are without vowels?

The answer is: "it depends".

Is 'y' a vowel? Well, when it has a vowel sound, it sometimes can be considered a vowel (sub-vowel?, vowlet?, voweloid? quasi-vowel?)

Consider: my, try, sky, cyst, syzygy (and lots of others).

Other than that, there may be some words-that-are-not-really-words that appear in print:

shhh, psst, mm-hmm.

And of course lots of abbreviations that have taken on a life of their own (some are usually written with a period after them, some are not; some are more-or-less always capitalized, some are not.)

Mr., Mrs., Ms, TV, DVD, CD, PhD, etc. (No! Wait: etc. has a vowel.)


Regards,

Dave