# Search for quoted text **URL:** \ **Category:** Feature requests\ **Tags:** under-review\ **Created:** [January 16, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://forum.paperpile.com/t/search-for-quoted-text/301 "2015-01-16T16:51:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cmbarker](https://forum.paperpile.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@cmbarker](https://forum.paperpile.com/u/cmbarker)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://forum.paperpile.com/t/search-for-quoted-text/301/1 "2015-01-16T16:51:33Z")
It would be very useful to be able to search Paperpile for specific phrases within quotes, such as “avian influenza”, rather than running a search for “avian” and “influenza” separately, both of which are much broader, leaving the user to sift through results to find those that are relevant. I cannot tell whether Paperpile gives a higher priority to results that follow the word order of the search, but even if it does, that approach would make it difficult to apply a secondary sort to the results (e.g., by publication date). ---
**Author:** ![stefan](https://forum.paperpile.com/user_avatar/forum.paperpile.com/stefan/32/1729_2.png) [@stefan](https://forum.paperpile.com/u/stefan)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 8:14am UTC](https://forum.paperpile.com/t/search-for-quoted-text/301/2 "2015-01-18T08:14:11Z")
We understand the use case and would implement it right away but for technical reasons how our database is designed it’s not easily possible at the moment. When you search your library you basically apply a filter and you are shown all items in your library that match these filters (i.e. implicit “AND”). The results are sorted by the sort option you have chosen on the right (by default it’s the date you added the item to your library). Paperpile does not currently do a search engine like ranking which would make it easy to prioritize items that include the complete search phrases and to enforce it with quotes. ---
**Author:** ![Kerim](https://forum.paperpile.com/user_avatar/forum.paperpile.com/kerim/32/93_2.png) [@Kerim](https://forum.paperpile.com/u/Kerim)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 4:43am UTC](https://forum.paperpile.com/t/search-for-quoted-text/301/3 "2016-03-21T04:43:42Z")
+1 for search phrases in quotes. Searching for “sign language” gets me results with “language” or “sign” but not the phrase I’m looking for… ---
**Author:** ![StrawberryPie](https://forum.paperpile.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ecb155/32.png) [@StrawberryPie](https://forum.paperpile.com/u/StrawberryPie)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 1:58am UTC](https://forum.paperpile.com/t/search-for-quoted-text/301/4 "2018-02-19T01:58:41Z")
Searching by exact phrases is apparently still not implemented. I just want to add my voice to this request, because I run into this limitation very frequently. ---
**Author:** ![jmw](https://forum.paperpile.com/user_avatar/forum.paperpile.com/jmw/32/1686_2.png) [@jmw](https://forum.paperpile.com/u/jmw)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 12:57pm UTC](https://forum.paperpile.com/t/search-for-quoted-text/301/5 "2018-08-14T12:57:37Z")
Plus 1 from me too - this limitation makes trying to find papers containing specific terms almost impossible. I know I can go back out to Google and search on the term but this is very frustrating when I ‘know’ I already have them in my Paperpile library… ---
**Author:** ![Kerim](https://forum.paperpile.com/user_avatar/forum.paperpile.com/kerim/32/93_2.png) [@Kerim](https://forum.paperpile.com/u/Kerim)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2019, 8:25am UTC](https://forum.paperpile.com/t/search-for-quoted-text/301/6 "2019-09-14T08:25:35Z")
This continues to be a real limitation with search… ---
**Author:** ![stefan](https://forum.paperpile.com/user_avatar/forum.paperpile.com/stefan/32/1729_2.png) [@stefan](https://forum.paperpile.com/u/stefan)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 8:27am UTC](https://forum.paperpile.com/t/search-for-quoted-text/301/7 "2019-09-26T08:27:46Z")
I hope we can share a preview of what we have planned for search soon. As I explained in a related thread about full-text PDF search, it’s not a matter of changing our existing system. It’s a matter of a complete rewrite. The bad news is that it takes time to do that. The good news is, from what I can see it will solve pretty much all the search related issues discussed here on the forum.