The API currently does not support this, but then neither does the website itself.
The "How do I search?" help page says:
OR operator
To combine results from multiple tags, separate the tag names (enclosed in square brackets) with the word "or":
[widgets] or [geegaws]
returns questions tagged with either tag.
(Emphasis added)
Note that it only refers to tags in conjunction with the or
operator. No facility is made for general or
operation.
Here's a related feature request which you can/should upvote.
Example on the main site:
- Searching for
[winzip] title:folder make
gives 3 results (currently). - Searching for
[winzip] title:folder automate
gives 1 result - Searching for
[winzip] title:folder make or automate
gives no results, when it should give at least 3 (fail). [winzip] title:folder (make or automate)
, etc., also fail.
The API equivalents ([one][7], [two][8], [three][9]) give the same results.
###Workarounds:
The Most timely/accurate workaround is: for each of the optional terms, search separately and then combine the results (stripping duplicate matches).
For example:
- Suppose your keywords were:
class
andfoo
. - [Search for
[java] title:http class
][10] (only 3303 results, currently). - [Search for
[java] title:http foo
][11] (81 results). - Repeat for each additional keyword.
- So we have 3384 gross results, then remove any duplicate
question_id
s for the final (net) results
This is annoying and inefficient, but it works and is easy to automate.
Other possible workarounds include using a [SEDE][12] query, or using a Google search with the `site:` parameter.
[7]: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/advanced-search#order=desc&sort=activity&q=title%3Afolder%20make&tagged=winzip&filter=!C(oUnwUzi0Ii8GQ&site=stackoverflow&run=true [8]: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/advanced-search#order=desc&sort=activity&q=title%3Afolder%20automate&tagged=winzip&filter=!C(oUnwUzi0Ii8GQ&site=stackoverflow&run=true [9]: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/advanced-search#order=desc&sort=activity&q=title%3Afolder%20make%20or%20automate&tagged=winzip&filter=!C(oUnwUzi0Ii8GQ&site=stackoverflow&run=true [10]: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/advanced-search#order=desc&sort=activity&q=title%3Ahttp%20class&tagged=java&filter=!C(oUnwUzi0Ii8GQ&site=stackoverflow&run=true [11]: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/advanced-search#order=desc&sort=activity&q=title%3Ahttp%20foo&tagged=java&filter=!C(oUnwUzi0Ii8GQ&site=stackoverflow&run=true [12]: https://data.stackexchange.com/help