The Imperial website hosts a comprehensive search engine to find products in the Imperial product line. This system uses a specially constructed database to allow you to search for specific words within the catalog, and will return the list of matching results for your search.
What are the ways I can search?
Basic searching is simple. Using the advanced search page gives you access to even more options.
Search Text: This allows you to enter a part number or a set of words to search for:
You can enter a single term or a list of terms in the Search Text box.
You can also group text together using parentheses ().
Words can be seperated by OR or AND to indicate searching for this OR that, or this AND that.
You can put double quotes around words you want to exactly match.
If you enter a list of words, all spaces are considered to be ANDs.
You can also do a search specifically targeting cross reference part numbers by prepeding the search text with "xref:"
You can do a catalog page search by prepending the search text with "cat:"
Catalog Section: Setting this drop-down to a specific product category will narrow your search down to the products in that category. This is useful for searches like "black paint" that could find references to black paint in other sections, like in vehicle parts.
Catalog Page: This allows you to search for all products listed on a particular page of the Imperial catalog. This index changes with each new catalog release. Searches are always against the most recent catalog release.
What is Advanced Search?
Using the advanced search, you can simplify entering a complex search by filling in the various fields to select which terms are required, which ones are optional, and which ones must be exact. Using advanced search avoids the need to remember the rules as defined in simple search.
What does the Sort By dropdown do?
The sort by option allows you to define the method used to sort the results of a search. The default is by Relevence. Your sort settings are saved between visits to the website. Here is an explanation of each sort:
By Relevence: The relevence sort is the default, and returns the search results in "best scoring" order. The score for each search result is calculated based on the number of times a word in your search shows up in the result.
By Group, Item: This sort results in items being sorted by their product grouping and part #. This can help when reviewing a search result with many different types of products matching, and will group like parts together.
By Item: This results in a list sorted in Imperial part #.
By Description: This results in a list sorted by the description text for the items returned by the search.
By Page, Item: This results in a list of products sorted by printed catalog page # and Imperial item #. This can be useful if your primary ordering method is by the printed catalog.
Here are some example searches:
black paint: This will search for the words black and paint together. Both words must exist in the search text to match. An equivalent search would be black and paint.
black or paint: This will search for the words black or paint in the search text. Finding either one would be considered a match.
(black or green) paint: This will search for the words black, green and paint in the search text. Finding either black or green in the text, along with paint, would be considered a match.
(black or green) (paint or connector): This will search for the words black or green and paint or connector in the search text. A match would require either black or green in the text, along with paint or connector.
xref:900*: This will search for all cross references that begin with 900.
xref:*900: This will search for all cross references that end with 900.
cat:a12: This will search for all items on catalog page a12.
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