Advanced Search -- need ability to "sort by size" - any ideas?

I need to use advanced search to find "(SOMETHING)" I need to search for the string including the parenthesis, but zen cart uses them for grouping. How do I escape them?

Thanks,
Brandon

Zen Cart doesn't use them directly, but rather parses them and then embeds them in the SQL string passed to your database to actually do the search. There is no provision for escaping them.

Are you asking the question as a site user, or as a site owner?

Site developer. The person I'm developing the site for needs to have a sort by size feature. It's a used maternity clothes site so there's only one of each product. She put the sizes in the description like this (XL). So I figure the best way to "sort by size" would be to set up an advanced search for the size in question. If you have a better idea I would love to hear it, since I'm under the gun here and this is my last hurdle.

Thanks,
Brandon

I know this is a double post. I'm sorry. I just really need an answer for this soon.

I need to search for parenthesis as part of my search query.

The person I'm developing the site for needs to have a sort by size feature. It's a used maternity clothes site so there's only one of each product. She put the sizes in the description like this (XL). So I figure the best way to "sort by size" would be to set up an advanced search for the size in question. But the parenthesis are being processed as grouping, so search for (XL) also finds (XXL) and searching for (S) finds most products because there's an S in the description somewhere. I'm not sold on doing it this way, it's just all I could come up with. If anyone has a better idea I would love to hear it, since I'm under the gun here and this is my last hurdle.

Thanks,
Brandon

I know this is a double post. I'm sorry. I just really need an answer for this soon.

I need to search for parenthesis as part of my search query.

The person I'm developing the site for needs to have a sort by size feature. It's a used maternity clothes site so there's only one of each product. She put the sizes in the description like this (XL). So I figure the best way to "sort by size" would be to set up an advanced search for the size in question. But the parenthesis are being processed as grouping, so search for (XL) also finds (XXL) and searching for (S) finds most products because there's an S in the description somewhere. I'm not sold on doing it this way, it's just all I could come up with. If anyone has a better idea I would love to hear it, since I'm under the gun here and this is my last hurdle.

Please Help!!!!

Thanks,
Brandon

The two ways that I can think of to do this without custom coding are:

1. to extend what goes inside the brackets. E.g. Change (S) to (size: S) and then create your search links on the "size: S" text
2. sort the products into categories defined by size - bear in mind that products can be linked to multiple categories so a set of size-related categories could appear underneath whatever primary categories you have already defined.