Searching: How do I Search the IPDb Database?

The IPDb database will most likely grow daily, so displaying every single entry is virtually impossible! Fear not!  The database can be searched to find exactly the type of puzzles which would be of interest to you.

This can be done by accessing the search screen via the Magnifier icon.

The search form looks almost identical to the Add New Puzzle form; it allows you to search in all fields.

Below, you have detailed descriptions of all the fields but the overall procedure is to fill in as much information as you know about the puzzles you are looking for and click/tap the search button once you are ready. To help you decide, if enough information has been given, the expected number of puzzles to be returned upon a search is displayed at the bottom of the form.

IPDb can handle any number of puzzles, but it will take much longer to get a result of 10000 puzzles than if you can narrow the search down further. Besides, too many results will typically also be hard to handle, in terms of finding something specific. So, please pay attention to the number at the bottom.

Quick Search

If you are after a quick, single search without too much specific detail, you can use the Quick Search field at the top of the search screen.
IPDb will then search for your exact word or word string across the following fields, and return records that have any matches in any of these fields:

• Name / Title
• Alternate Name
• Tags
• Name of Artist
• Name of Collection
• Name of multi-puzzles
• Any private fields with a "string" type

If you want to refine the search further, you can also select eg brand or piece count etc., in the specific search fields further down.

Limit search to these folders

From the dropdown you can select a number of your private folders, and narrow down the search to only return puzzles from these folders.

Name of Puzzle

You can type in part of the name, and search for that. You do not have to specify the full name; the search does not care about, upper/lower case characters. While you type, IPDb will make suggestions of titles you may be looking for, and you can select among these by clicking the right one, or click/tap search if you wish to return all of the suggestions. 

So, if you only want to see all 'cat' puzzles, try searching for just 'cat' and you will be blessed, with a large number, of cat puzzles, whereas, for instance, choosing 'Silly Cats' from the suggestion list will give you just one.

Please be aware that puzzles with the word 'Vacation' will also fit the general search for 'cat' and any other title with, the word, 'cat' in it.

Tags

Provided puzzles have tags saved in the record, you can search by 1 or more tags.  Enter the tag(s) you are interested in, or describe the puzzle image you are looking for, in more detail.  Enter the word or string (no spaces), press the space bar to enter the next tag, or go to the next field if only 1 tag is required.  It will then display the tag in a box with an X. To remove a tag in the search, press the X or backspace if still in the tag field.
NOTE: If you enter more than one tag all puzzles with the given tags will be returned, not just the puzzles with all the tags.

Barcode

This field is mostly used to find a single puzzle as barcodes tend to be unique for each product. You can enter the barcode manually, or scan it with your camera (mobile phones only).

Using this search before adding a new puzzle to check if this barcode is already in IPDb is a very, commonly used case. In much the same way, it can be used in shops to look up a puzzle that you are considering buying. You can read all the reviews and see the ratings before spending, your money. For collectors, this can also be used to establish whether or not they already own that puzzle. Some have so many, that they do actually, forget...

Manufacturer ID
The manufacturer ID can be used in the same way as the barcode.  The Manufacturer ID is a unique code, used by puzzle brands to identify a particular puzzle.

Brand
Start typing the name and a list will appear with the brands that match your typing; select one from the list. You can only search for 1 specific brand at a time.  However, you can search for other criteria (Eg: piece count) and then apply various brand filters, to the search result.   
See: filtering search results.

Piece Count
There are a few ways to use search criteria for piece count. 

If you know the exact piece count you can type in the number.

• If you type 1000 then only puzzles with exactly 1000 pieces will be returned

• If you type 1000-1500 then only puzzles equal to or bigger than 1000 and smaller than or equal to 1500 are returned
• If you type 1000- then only puzzles equal to or bigger than 1000 pieces are returned
• If you type -1000 then only puzzles equal to or smaller than 1000 pieces are returned

Categories

The categories dropdown allows you to specify one or more categories that may describe what type of image the puzzle has. If selecting, multiple categories only puzzles, which have ALL selected categories, will be returned.

Width, Height and Unit Measure

With these 3 options, you can specify which sizes of puzzles you are interested in (Eg: puzzles that will fit your puzzle board).

 
Width and height can be specified in exactly, the same way, as pieces, to either be a specific value or a range; range, is probably better as users enter these measurements in one of 2 measurement systems (inches/cm),  which does not round up nicely when converted from one to the other.  So it is recommended to specify ranges, such as (-19 for less than 19 inches etc.).

Artist/photographer/designer and Name of Collection

These 2 work the same as other fields where a list of options will pop up when you start typing. Please note: That some names can be spelt in various ways, either, due to language differences, or simply 'typos', so look in the list and select with care.

Shape, Cut and Material

These 3 have pop-up lists from which a single value can be selected.

Special Features

This list works in the same way as the Category; select one or many, but only puzzles satisfying ALL selected features, are returned, when multiple options have been selected.

Private Fields

If you have created your own "Private Fields", these are also able to be searched. They work in the same way as other similar fields. 

NOTE: When specifying search criteria for dates, you must select a range of dates; that means a start date and, an end date (both included). If you search for a single date this is done by specifying the same start and end date.

NOTE 2: When searching for boolean values (true/false, yes/no), you can specify the value to be true (checked), false (not checked) or not decided (greyed out)

Order By

You can also specify how you would like your result to be ordered. Just select the field you wish, to order by. You can even specify ordering in multiple layers. Each field can be ordered in ascending or descending order.

Only Timed Puzzles

By selecting this option, only puzzles that have a completion time recorded in IPDb will be returned.