Keyword Search Error

[cwberardi]

The API returns the same results regardless of quotes used in keywords.

Working example, where "machine learning" is used to call api/v2/download/count/ endpoint:

import requests
import json

reqUrl = "https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/download/count/"

headersList = {
 "Accept": "application/json",
 "Content-Type": "application/json" 
}

payload = json.dumps({
    "filters": {
        "keywords": [
            "machine learning"
        ]
      
    }
})

response = requests.request("POST", reqUrl, data=payload,  headers=headersList)

print(response.text)

API Response, which treats the query as "machine"&"learning"

{
  "calculated_transaction_count": 23690,
  "maximum_transaction_limit": 500000,
  "transaction_rows_gt_limit": false,
  "messages": [
    "For searches, time period start and end dates are currently limited to an earliest date of 2007-10-01.  For data going back to 2000-10-01, use either the Custom Award Download feature on the website or one of our download or bulk_download API endpoints as listed on https://api.usaspending.gov/docs/endpoints."
  ]
}

Working example using escaped quotes for ""machine learning"":

reqUrl = "https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/download/count/"

headersList = {
 "Accept": "application/json",
 "Content-Type": "application/json" 
}

payload = json.dumps({
    "filters": {
        "keywords": [
            "\"machine learning\""
        ]
      
    }
})

response = requests.request("POST", reqUrl, data=payload,  headers=headersList)

print(response.text)

API Response, which also treats the query as "machine" and "learning"

{
  "calculated_transaction_count": 23690,
  "maximum_transaction_limit": 500000,
  "transaction_rows_gt_limit": false,
  "messages": [
    "For searches, time period start and end dates are currently limited to an earliest date of 2007-10-01.  For data going back to 2000-10-01, use either the Custom Award Download feature on the website or one of our download or bulk_download API endpoints as listed on https://api.usaspending.gov/docs/endpoints."
  ]
}

Working example, where "'machine learning'" is used to call api/v2/download/count/ endpoint:

reqUrl = "https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/download/count/"

headersList = {
 "Accept": "application/json",
 "Content-Type": "application/json" 
}

payload = json.dumps({
    "filters": {
        "keywords": [
            "'machine learning'"
        ]
      
    }
})

response = requests.request("POST", reqUrl, data=payload,  headers=headersList)

print(response.text)

API Response, I can't explain this behavior. The results are much narrower than 'machine learning'

{
  "calculated_transaction_count": 8,
  "maximum_transaction_limit": 500000,
  "transaction_rows_gt_limit": false,
  "messages": [
    "For searches, time period start and end dates are currently limited to an earliest date of 2007-10-01.  For data going back to 2000-10-01, use either the Custom Award Download feature on the website or one of our download or bulk_download API endpoints as listed on https://api.usaspending.gov/docs/endpoints."
  ]
}

This API behavior isn't well documented. I'm not sure if this is user error or an issue with the API. I would appreciate an explanation of the behavior.