WC_Query::has_positive_search_terms │ private │ WC 1.0

Check whether the current search query contains at least one positive (non-exclusion) term.

WordPress relevance ordering requires positive search terms to build a valid ORDER BY clause. Searches that are empty or contain only exclusion terms (e.g. "-condebug") produce no positive terms, which results in invalid SQL when relevance ordering is used.

This method delegates tokenization to WP_Query so it correctly handles WordPress's search term parsing (splitting on spaces, commas, and +) and respects the wp_query_search_exclusion_prefix filter.

Method of the class: WC_Query{}

Hooks from the method

Returns

true|false.

Usage

// private - for code of main (parent) class only
$result = $this->has_positive_search_terms(): bool;

WC_Query::has_positive_search_terms() code WC 10.8.1

woocommerce/includes/class-wc-query.php 
private function has_positive_search_terms(): bool {
	$search_string = get_query_var( 's' );
	$search_string = is_array( $search_string ) ? '' : trim( (string) $search_string );

	if ( '' === $search_string ) {
		return false;
	}

	// Use WP_Query to parse search terms using core's tokenization rules.
	$search_query = new class( array( 's' => $search_string ) ) extends \WP_Query {
		/**
		 * This constructor is overridden to avoid triggering a database query while allowing access to search term parsing routines.
		 * Using public query APIs such as the `parse_query` method leads to test regressions, so an anonymous class approach is used instead.
		 *
		 * @param string|array $query URL query string or array of vars.
		 */
		public function __construct( $query = '' ) {
			$this->query_vars = (array) $query;
			$this->parse_search( $this->query_vars );
		}
	};
	$search_terms = $search_query->query_vars['search_terms'] ?? array();

	if ( empty( $search_terms ) ) {
		return false;
	}

	/** This filter is documented in wp-includes/class-wp-query.php */
	$exclusion_prefix = (string) apply_filters( 'wp_query_search_exclusion_prefix', '-' ); // phpcs:ignore WooCommerce.Commenting.CommentHooks.MissingSinceComment

	if ( '' !== $exclusion_prefix ) {
		$search_terms = array_filter(
			$search_terms,
			static fn( $term ) => ! str_starts_with( $term, $exclusion_prefix )
		);
	}

	return ! empty( $search_terms );
}