Options to control the Quick Switcher / Links Suggestion algorithm above 10000 items / Ignore spaces

Feature archive
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22

10000 searchable items will cause this behavior. This includes files, attachments, broken links and aliases.
(Since the old thread went into grave, I’ll repost this information here.)

23

I would like to see this in community plugins! There’s no size restriction on plugins that I know of. I used to use a plugin that just added a button for the “Reveal current file in navigation command”.

24

I really like the idea to have more options to adjust the Quick Switcher algorithm. The Quick Switcher is one of the most essential and important features of Obsidian, but if you take a look at its core plugin settings there is not much you can adjust.

I currently have 21’854 (small) files in my personal knowledge base (vault) and it will get even larger in the future. I always thought that the algorithm of Obsidian was just bad, but I found out that it’s just because I’m using the simplified one already for a long time.

I have a hard time defining workarounds in my vault’s system. Here are some problems I have with the current simplified search algorithm:

  • More accurate search texts lead to worse results
    • When I search for Vitamin then Vitamin A.md is at position 4 of the search results. But if I add the A (getting Vitamin A) then Vitamin A.md ironically is at position 26 (even further below). Searching for Workaround: Putting Vitamin A.md in a folder Vitamin A/ and searching for Vitamin A/... (because a file can’t contain a /).
    • Searching for Application Sofwar (without e) prioritizes Application Software.md over Software Application.md (this isn’t the same) which is correct. Adding the e suddenly switches the priorities, prioritizing Software Application.md over Application Software.md. To me, this is a bug.
  • Multiplicity of substrings is ignored: Searching Database Data will prioritize Database.md over Database Data.md because the substring Data is contained twice. Searching Database Data will even prioritize Database Data.md less than searching only for Database. Workaround: Using another prefix like its abbreviation (DB).
  • Concatenated substrings are always prioritized:
    • Searching for File System ironically prioritizes all files with the substring Filesystem somewhere in its name over those that contain File System. Workaround: Making strict rules for how to write specific terms, abbreviating them or changing them.
    • This is very problematic for software developers when documenting interfaces: Having DOM `DocumentFragment`.md (interface) and DOM Document Fragment.md (abstract concept) will prioritize DOM `DocumentFragment`.md always over Document Fragment.md. If you add members like DOM `DocumentFragment.foo()`.md, DOM `DocumentFragment.bar()`.md they all get prioritized over Document Fragment.md, hiding it. I have serious limitations because of this.

The larger my vault becomes, the more I’m scared that my vault’s system won’t work anymore. But I don’t want to make it an option to restrict myself, adding new files. I should not be frightened, adding new files. This is a limitation of Obsidian, not a limitation of what it can be.

It’s funny that Obsidian would have the feature to fix this problem, but just deliberately deactivates it by itself (though I don’t know how the performance would be then).

25

Oh, dang. So, that’s what happened. I was assuming an update changed the behavior, but it was because I went over 10k files a couple months ago…

26

+1 bumping this – I think 10,000 files is pretty easy to reach. I have multiple vaults, but if you take an atomic approach to your notes then 10,000 is reached pretty quickly.

27

Unfortunately same is happeing on my vault for a while now. I started to notice that I create multiple similar notes, that I before easiyl found. But know I know why. E.g. I have a note thats called “Ole something” and if I type [[Ole it won’t find that file. There’s almost daily where I know I have a note, but quick switcher does not find, eventough I have typed a word part of the file name… Then I use Omnisearch, and try 2-3 times, and then I find it. But before, I just typed, 1s later, I found all my notes. This is really concerning and bad for my workflow.

I am now thinking of removing all my images from my vault, or all my read-later captures. I also have some symlinks to my blogs and book chapter, just to lower the threshold. But yeah, ultimately, that’s not the solution. Is there nobody from Obsidian who can say what’s going on, so that at least we can address the problem correctly? That’s why open-source is still the best.. so we could quickly check the code.

Did anybody found a solution yet?

28

Some optimization were introduced in v1.14.3+, therefore the 10K limitation will be lifted.