NationStates Jolt Archive

I was recently asked if there was a way to find a nation if one did *not* have the exact spelling. The person asking said that they created a couple of new nations, but didn't write the names down and forgot them. In response, I am making this topic.

NationStates does not have a spellchecker function; you need an exact name for the search options to work. However, if you know the first three letters of the nation name, then hope is not lost. You can attempt a manual search of the list of nations in the world in the following manner:

Suppose you were trying to find my nation, "Cogitation", but didn't know which region it was in or the exact spelling. Also suppose that you couldn't find any of my posts so that ou could look up the name. But, you know it begins with "Cog". Okay, let's look for me.

Right now, there are about 120,000 nations in the world. So, you would begin in the middle by typing in the following URL:

http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=list_nations/start=60000

Nation 60000 (in alphabetical order) is The Queendom of "Lobania" (at the moment). "Cog" comes before "Lobania" so we can ignore all nations after "Lobania" (60000). Let's try 30000.

http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=list_nations/start=30000

This comes up with The Republic of "EKMB". "Cog" is before "EKMB", so ignore everything after 30000 and split the remaining field in half again.

http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=list_nations/start=15000

This turns up The Constitutional Monarchy of "Bushes Bitch".

/me takes a moment out of the explanation to go modbomb "Bushes Bitch".

"Cog" comes after "Bush", so we can ignore all nations before 15000. So, let's split the field in half again. (30000+15000) / 2 = 22500

http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=list_nations/start=22500

...turns up The Republic of "Cullifawnia"

(15000+22500)/2=18750 http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=list_nations/start=18750

...turns up The Confederacy of "Chongism".

I'm not doing my more arithmetic in my head, so I'll just pick a number between 18750 and 22500. 20000 will suffice. http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=list_nations/start=20000

...turns up The Rogue Nation of "Coitvania". This is pretty close to "Cog", so I'm guessing "Cog" is closer to 20000 than 18750

http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=list_nations/start=19750

...turns up The Nomadic Peoples of "Clueless nomes".

http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=list_nations/start=19900

...turns up The Theocracy of "Coconut fat".

http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=list_nations/start=19950

This finally turns up a list of nations ranging from The Rogue Nation of "Cofis" to The Nomadic Moderator Puppet of "Coglab 6". In the middle of that page is The Modified Democratic States of "Cogitation".

We have now performed a binary search on the list of all nations in the world. All we neede the the correct first three letters of the national name.

I hope everyone finds this useful.

--The Democratic States of... Uhhh.... How do I spell my name again? :lol:
"Think about it for a moment."
Founder of The Realm of Ambrosia

Yay for binary searching! :D

Although you probably would want to start lower with a 'C' name :P

Time consuming, yet accurate and helpful. Cogitation, good job.

Here's a medal.

Yay!!!

Are you going to make this a sticky :?

He nicked it off me! ME I tell you!

(Someone has to go and purge all those nations beginning with 'shit'... and worse. :shock: )

This turns up The Constitutional Monarchy of "Bushes Bitch".

/me takes a moment out of the explanation to go modbomb "Bushes Bitch".
LOL!!!

I have actually used this method myself. It is time consuming.

Yup, this method will work, and should take no more than 17 steps. That really isn't too bad.

http://www.weirdozone.0catch.com/projects/nationstates/salusasecondus/salusasecondus2.jpg
SalusaSecondus
Tech Modling
PGP: 0x0604DF3E

good idea, I thought youwere going to post a link to an offsite place wehre you could search from, or tell us how to see the sailboat.

Also, Google works. I can find myself as first link.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=1+infinite+loop

Google is all powerful, we must submit to its power.
All hail Google bringer of links.
Keep out harvests plentiful and out enemies at bay.
All Hail Google.

good idea, I thought youwere going to post a link to an offsite place wehre you could search from, or tell us how to see the sailboat.

Also, Google works. I can find myself as first link.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=1+infinite+loop

Google is all powerful, we must submit to its power.
All hail Google bringer of links.
Keep out harvests plentiful and out enemies at bay.
All Hail Google.
*bows down in praise*

But it still doesn't work as well for when you don't know the exact spelling. I can't get myself with "Nal site:www.nationstates.net"

Go to the advanced panel for Google, and in the "with at least one of the words" box, type in various different spellings of the nation.
Then you want to type 'nationstates.net' in the "Only return results from the site or domain" box.

However, this will only be accurate to the last time google updated their index.
A nation created within the last few days won't show up.

Yup, this method will work, and should take no more than 17 steps. That really isn't too bad.

*whispers to Salusa*
redo the math there... 15 nations are on a page... Would be a tad silly to continue doing a binary search within one page, wouldn't it?

This could be further improved upon by including an estimation function (based on the alphabetical order) which, while increasing the theoretical worst-case maximum, can drastically reduce the average seek time.

Ballotonia

I just love how when folks look for 1 Infinite Loop on Google, Im the First theing they see, I wonder how many folks found the game that way?

Is there anyway to add a function to the nation search where it'll come up with-

"The nation of (whatever) was not found, here are the closet matches found-"

And then display a list of nations with a name similar to what you typed. I'm sure it would take quite a bit of coding and work, but I think it would be worth it. Any thoughts?

good idea, I thought youwere going to post a link to an offsite place wehre you could search from, or tell us how to see the sailboat.

Also, Google works. I can find myself as first link.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=1+infinite+loop

Google is all powerful, we must submit to its power.
All hail Google bringer of links.
Keep out harvests plentiful and out enemies at bay.
All Hail Google.

*cough second link cough*

But, when I put in my nation it doesn't work. I guess using actual words doesn't help. All I get are spa resorts and what not. :?

-Toast

Like myrth said, there is a "search only within domain" function on google. Enter "site:[domainname]" to search only on that doman. That would be "site:www.nationstates.net" to search only on NS.

But, when I put in my nation it doesn't work. I guess using actual words doesn't help. All I get are spa resorts and what not. :?

Try adding quotation marks in your search:
"Topnotch Toast"

Then your nation shows up in the region Lithiana.

Ballotonia

Bas has a good idea (I think). I would definatly end up using it alot, being dyslexic. Also, if one were unsure of spacing/the's, it would narrow search time down quite a bit. Of course, this means more work for Sal, but that's the point of NS, isn't it? To drive Sal insane with petty demands?