Specifying Search Criteria

Dates and Times

You can enter dates directly or use the date/time picker () to select a date. If you are using the date/time picker, you can also specify a time in the hh:mm:ss format.

When you enter dates directly, enter them in the format YYYY-MM-DD.

You can enter a From date, a To date, or both. If you do not specify a time, the system assumes a From time of 00:00:00 and a To time of 23:59:59.

Text

Note Use the Full Text field to search for matching text within a document rather than in its indexes.

The descriptions that follow use an example database that contains documents with the values shown in the following table in the Customer Name field.

Index	Values
Customer Name	Jack Jones Harry Brown Jack Paul Harry
Invoice Number	100 200 300

When searching text indexes, select a search type, which determines how to match the word or phrase you enter.

The following types of search are available:

• Is empty

  This option returns all results for text indexes that have no value set. When this is selected the text field is not available.

  For example, this could be used where you want to set a rule allowing all users to see documents that have no value set in this field.

• Complete phrase

  This option returns results that contain at least one occurrence of the exact sequence of words entered.

  For example, if you search the Customer Name index for a Complete phrase for Jack Harry, no matches are returned. If you search for Harry, Harry Brown and Jack Paul Harry are returned.

  If you search for Jack followed by a space, Jack Jones and Jack Paul Harry are returned. If a space precedes Jack, no matches are found.

• All of the words

  This option returns results that contain at least one occurrence of every word or quoted phrase you have typed. This is an example of an AND query.

  Searching for Jack Harry in the Customer Name index returns documents that contain both Jack and Harry as a value within that field. In this example, Jack Paul Harry is returned.

• Any of the words

  This option returns results containing at least one occurrence of at least one of the words or quoted phrases you entered. This is the least specific type of search. It is an example of an OR query.

  Searching for Jack Harry in the Customer Name index returns documents that contain either Jack or Harry in the Customer Name field. In this example, three documents are returned — Jack Jones, Harry Brown and Jack Paul Harry.

• Exact match

  This option returns results that are equal to the value entered in the search field.

  For example, if you search the Customer Name index for an Exact match for Jack, no matches are found. Looking for Jack Jones returns a single match.

You can use wildcard characters in text searches. The following table shows examples of the use of wildcard searches where documents contain index values of Hardy, Harry, and Hemingway.

Use this character	To replace	This search string	Returns
% or *	zero or more characters	Ha%	Hardy, Harry
_	A single character	Har_y	Harry, Hardy
[x]	A single character within a range ([a-f]) or set ([abcdef])	Har[dr]y	Hardy, Harry
[^x]	A single character not within the specified range ([^a-f]) or set ([^abcdef])	Har[^d]y	Harry

Note You cannot use square bracket wildcard characters ([] or [^]) when searching an Oracle database

Decimal Number

Enter a number or range of numbers.

Whole Number

The following types of search are available:

• single value - returns results that contain the exact value entered.
• range of values - returns results that contain any value within the range specified, including the start and end values.
• any of the values - returns results that contain any of the values entered in the Values field. The values must be separated by a space.

Full Text

Use this field to search for documents that contain the text you specify. The following table describes how to use this field.

To search for:	Specify	Example
A word or phrase	The word or phrase. Enclose phrases in double quotation marks. There is no need to enclose single words in quotation marks.	"overdue account" society
The prefix (first letters) of a word or phrase	Enclose the prefix in double quotation marks and add an asterisk (*) before the closing quotation mark to search for all text starting with the prefix. On a SQL Server database, when the prefix you specify is a phrase, each word in the phrase is treated as a separate prefix. On an Oracle database, the phrase is treated as a complete phrase, and all words other than the last one in the phrase must exactly match.	"over*" searches for all words starting with over, such as overdue and overdrawn. On a SQL Server database, "over acc*" matches phrases such as overdue accounts and overtly accountable. On an Oracle database, "over acc*" matches phrases such as over account and over accountable.
A word or phrase near another word or phrase	Enter the items, separated by NEAR.	overdrawn NEAR penalty matches documents containing both the words penalty and overdrawn.
A number of words or phrases, all of which appear in the same document.	The items, separated by AND.	bank AND "building society" AND friendly matches documents containing bank, building society, and friendly.
A word or phrase that appears, but not in conjunction with another word or phrase.	The item that appears, followed by AND NOT and then the item that must not appear in the document.	building AND NOT society matches documents that contain the word building but not the word society.
Either of two words or phrases	The items, separated by OR.	bank OR "building society" matches documents that contain either the word bank or the phrase building society.

See also:

• Searching for Documents
• Searching a Single Category
• Searching Multiple Categories