When using the SBF command on the Lookup port (see http://www.iqfeed.net/dev/api/docs/SymbolLookupviaTCPIP.cfm), I can see no way to limit the number of responses.

It's easy enough for us to drop all responses after the first x responses have been received, but that leaves the port still tied up sending data which we will throw away.

Is there a better way to limit the number of responses? Adding a maximum number of responses to the SBF call would be a good way.

An example of this is if you search the description for "mini" I stopped the process at 11,000 results!

You can filter SBF searches by Security Type or Exchange, but not both. To use a random example:

SBF,s,SK

Without any filters, this returns 6,984 matches. If you know you're looking for an equity, you can do this:

SBF,s,SK,t,1

The t means "security type" and the 1 is type 1, which is equities. The command SST returns a list of these codes and what they mean. That search returns only 160 matches, all of which are equities.

You can use multiple codes:

SBF,s,SK,t,1 2 3

And you'll get matches from any of those three security type (equities, index/equity options, mutual funds).

Similarly, you can use the letter e to limit responses to one or more listed markets:

SBF,s,SK,e,7

This will return only the 22 symbols traded on NYSE. You can also use the same space-separated list to search for symbols that may be on any of multiple exchanges. The command SLM returns the list of exchange codes.

All of these techniques also work with text searches:

SBF,d,mini,e,7

This only returns about 30 matches, all of which are NYSE symbols.

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Sincerely,
Gary Stephen
DTN IQFeed Implementation Support Specialist

Thanks Gary,

we do use those but we have a form which allows clients to search and they have control over those options. But we all know that clients can do some strange things.

It would be very helpful if there was a max number which we could add into the call.