Exploring Search by Specs – Search the Way You Want

Octopart’s Search Algorithm Is Smart and Keeps Getting Smarter

The Octopart electronic component search engine can identify numbers, units and fractions within your search query and match them against part data specifications. This is a way for the search engine to determine the possible intent of your search – similar to suggested categories – to return the most relevant results possible.

The goal with refinements to our search algorithm has always been about improving the overall quality of results by eliminating as many non-relevant parts as possible, while at the same time, returning a more exhaustive set of suitable parts. In other words, if a part is missing specification data, our algorithm will find parts that have spec data somewhere in their descriptions, increasing the relevancy of your results and allowing you to find parts that otherwise would not have been included in the results before the algorithm had this capability.

Write Searches Your Way

Another convenient Octopart capability is that no matter how you want to write your searches, we’ll likely understand what you’re looking for. For example, you can search by unit names – like ohm, watt, volt, amp and farad – or you can use their respective symbols. And you can enter specs as integers, decimals or whole number fractions. Yes, fractions are a feature we were particularly excited about when released, and they have proven to deliver a great deal of utility to Octopart users.

Octopart will also understand your search regardless of where you put your spaces. No need to wonder how to write your query. Write it your way and Octopart will understand.

In the past, searching on specs was possible, but it was reliant on clean and complete technical data: something that is not always available (and something that we’ve been improving for years). Today, the Octopart search algorithm recognizes that when you search for “1/4 W resistor,” you’d like to see resistors that have “0.25 W” or “250 mW” in their specs. We no longer rely on a strict 1 to 1 text match. Now we can recognize the spec you’re searching for and match it against different permutations of ways to write the specification, whether located in the technical data for the part or in the part’s text description.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the possible ways you can search on Octopart. You can see in Figure 1 that when you enter the query “10nf,25v,10%,X7R,0402”, Octopart recognizes that these are most likely specs for a ceramic capacitor and offers that sub-category as a suggested filter to apply to your query. 

Figure 1 – Initial search results for the specs “10nf,25v,10%,X7R,0402”

With the suggested category filter applied automatically, this specific query returns 102 results, with the top results being ceramic capacitors that are most likely to meet the specs in the query. (Note that the actual number of results will change day to day depending on part availability, new parts, and parts that have been removed from the database.) See Figure 2.

Figure 2 – Ceramic capacitors that meet queried specs in Price & Availability view

Switching to the Part Specifications view provides an even better example of how the Octopart search algorithm matches comma-grouped specs in the query to parts with those specs. See Figure 3.

Figure 3 – The specs searched for appear in Most Relevant Part Specifications

Other examples that show off this feature include “10 ohms ±1%, 1/8w chip resistor 0805”, which displays results that contain 125 mW for their power rating. Here the algorithm understands that 1/8w is equal to 125 mW. If it had been written as .125 W, the same results would be displayed. Whether you use 1/8 W, 0.125 W or 125 mW, Octopart recognizes that they all mean the same thing. See Figure 4.

Figure 4 – Searching for 1/8w (or .125w or 125 mW) delivers the same results

An Intuitive and Flexible Octopart Search Experience

This is by no means the final version of this feature. In the future, you can look forward to broader support for symbols and additional units.

Currently, Octopart provides enhanced query support for the following units and their abbreviations: temperature, Ohm, Watt (W), Volt (V), Amp (A), Farad (F), henry (H), and Hertz (Hz). Octopart supports combining these units with whole numbers, decimals and fractions, as well as the following metric prefixes and their abbreviations: pico, nano, micro, milli, kilo, mega and giga. Additionally, there is support for common compound units such as Volt-Amps, as well as units like distance and percentages.

Try it out for yourself! Let us know what you think, or if you ever find results that do not match your search. Your feedback helps us constantly tweak and improve our algorithm, so don’t hesitate to reach out!