Add documentation for case-sensitive code search / regex mode modifiers

[victorlin]

Code of Conduct

• I have read and agree to the GitHub Docs project's Code of Conduct

What article on docs.github.com is affected?

https://docs.github.com/en/search-github/github-code-search/understanding-github-code-search-syntax

What part(s) of the article would you like to see updated?

I found out through StackOverflow that case-sensitive search can be accomplished with the (?-i) mode modifier. The official docs should note this instead of stating "You cannot do case-sensitive searches", which is not true.

Additionally, it would be nice if the section on regular expressions described which mode modifiers are supported by code search. There are many, and different flavors of regex are known to support different modifiers.

Additional information

No response

[nguyenalex836]

@victorlin Thank you for raising this issue! I'll get this triaged for review ✨ Our team will provide feedback regarding the best next steps for this issue - thanks for your patience! 💛

[subatoi]

Hi @victorlin 👋

I found out through StackOverflow that case-sensitive search can be accomplished with the (?-i) mode modifier. The official docs should note this instead of stating "You cannot do case-sensitive searches", which is not true.

Thanks for bringing that to our attention. I think the best thing to do would be to delete the whole section on "Case sensitivity".

Before I open that to contributors, I'd like to give you first refusal if you'd like to open a PR yourself?

Additionally, it would be nice if the section on regular expressions described which mode modifiers are supported by code search. There are many, and different flavors of regex are known to support different modifiers.

However, this isn't typically something we'd document. I'd recommend opening a Discussion on this so we can see what kind of traction it gets.

Could I also take a moment to thank you for raising an issue before going ahead and raising a PR—it's much appreciated and makes the experience better for everyone ✨

[victorlin]

Hey @subatoi, thanks for the response! I'd be happy to open a PR once we settle on the details.

I think the best thing to do would be to delete the whole section on "Case sensitivity".

I'd like to push back on this – I think it's important to document that code search is case-insensitive by default, and only the inaccurate/misleading parts should be removed. Even though the average user may not care about case sensitivity, there is a fraction of users who do – the 35k views on this StackOverflow question should be enough evidence.

How about something along the lines of this?

Code search is case-insensitive. Searching for True will include results for uppercase TRUE and lowercase true. 
- You cannot do case-sensitive searches. Regular expression searches … are also case-insensitive …
+ You can do case-sensitive searches by using a regular expression with case insensitivity turned off, for example `(?-i)True`.

this isn't typically something we'd document.

I'm not sure what is "typical" then, but the proposal above should work fine with the existing section on regex that says "Most common regular expressions features work in code search". No need to document mode modifier support in detail.

thank you for raising an issue before going ahead and raising a PR

💯 we have been practicing this over at @nextstrain and it's been going well!

[subatoi]

@victorlin Thanks for your feedback—that makes sense and I agree with your suggested change and that it will work with the rest of the existing text, so please feel free to open a PR with that. We won't open it to contributors generally and will wait for your contribution 👍