How to Find Parts Fast With Our New Search Filters

 We recently unveiled an update to our part search interface designed to help you find parts on Octopart without knowing the MPN. In this blog we discuss how these new filters work and how they can help you narrow down your search results.

When you get to Octopart.com, you can type the category you need into the search bar or select its image on the homepage. From there, you can select subcategories from the breadcrumbs displayed at the top of the page, or from the Categories drop down next to the search bar at the top of the page.

One of the biggest features of our new update are smarter filter suggestions. Our new algorithm, developed by our in-house electrical engineers based on numerical research and real-world electrical engineering experience, presents the technical specifications most relevant to your search at the top of the page. For example, if you're looking for Op Amps, Octopart shows you that Slew Rate, Gain Bandwidth Product, Input Offset Voltage, PSRR, and CMRR are important considerations when choosing Op Amps. You can also set a range of text values and sort by value or number of results – and you can see what values you’ve chosen in the bottom left corner.

The filters are presented in a logical order for making design choices, so you can quickly choose the most important technical specs to keep drilling down your search. When you are looking at Ceramic Capacitors, Capacitance, Dielectric, Mount, Case/Package, Voltage Rating (DC), and Tolerance are key filters.

Try searching for Switching Voltage Regulators. You can easily choose the Case/Package, and then select a Manufacturer if there’s one you prefer. If you want to clear all of your selections and start over, you can scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Remove Filters.

For another example, let’s look at Optocouplers. After you search for that term,  you’ll see the total number of parts that are in the Optocoupler category. Then, if you want to narrow down to a particular Case/Package, you can sort by number of results or alphabetically to help you quickly see the range of parts offered by any distributor that correspond with those specs. Choose which specs you want, and see what parts are available that match.

Have you tried out our new spec filters yet? Try it now and let us know what you think!