Parametric searches - SHIFT and CTRL keys are your friend

[bkochis]

Chris, Dave,

On your last podcast (for the Amp Hour) you were ranting, as usual, about parametric searches and wanted to drop a hint you may not be aware of. 

You can use the SHIFT or CTRL key to change your selection pattern.  See attached PDF.

When you hold the SHIFT key down and press the mouse button you have selected a sequential list of choices (see first 2 screen shots in attached doc)  I wanted a capacitor above 50volts but less than 200v so I held the SHIFT key down and mouse clicked on the first and last item within the range I wanted.  I selected ‘apply’ and that voltage range was presented to me, as shown in second screen shot. 

Later I decided I only wanted specific voltages, so I held the CTRL key down and mouse clicked on each of the specific values I was interested in, as shown in the third screen shot.  The results are in the fourth screen shot. 

The reason this works is that the selection values are presented to the user in an ‘ordered list’ and then the user’s selection is given to the underlying SQL statement that is used for the search.

SHIFT and CTRL will generally work with a lot of Windows/Mac/Linux applications on your desktop whenever an ‘ordered list’ is presented, but you will have to try it with the specific application.   (Sorry I do not know the Mac keys for this)


My apologies for the exhaustive detail in my instructions but it is more difficult to explain via email or a post, versus a voice conversation.

Hope this makes life a little less ‘exciting’, as the Chinese curse goes.

[mariush]

I think he knows. But it doesn't always help.

For example, I may be interested in a switching voltage regulator that can accept input between 5-15v. Think how easy it is to use Shift and Ctrl on digikey on this, to select all voltage regulators accepting a minimum of 6v and a maximum of 15v

You can see in the pictures you have regulators capable of much lower maximum voltage mixed with some that work with very high voltages... so you can't just go selecting ranges or selecting individually with ctrl because you go mad until you finish.

It would have made more sense to offer a "minimum input voltage" and a "maximum output voltage column" like Farnell does (but farnell also has a lot of flaws in their selection system)