A search expression is one or several words that you want the system to use while searching for a contact. The search expression may be either as simple as one descriptive word or more complex: several words (possibly with wildcards) with logical operators.
The full list of implemented logical operators and wildcard symbols is provided below.
| (logical 'or')
e.g., Sonnmatt | Design
To search for contacts which have "Sonnmatt" or "Design" as part of their fields.
& (logical 'and')
e.g., Sonnmatt & Design
To search for contacts which have "Sonnmatt" and "Design" as part of their fields.
<> (logical 'not')
e.g., <>Sonnmatt
To search for contacts which do not have "Sonnmatt" as part of their fields.
' ' (exact phrase)
e.g., 'Sonnmatt Design'
To search for contacts which have "Sonnmatt Design" in their fields.
? (one unknown character)
e.g., S?nnmatt
To search for contacts which have "Sannmatt" or "Sonnmatt", etc., as part of their fields.
* (string of unknown characters)
e.g., *on*, *on, on*
To search for contacts which have texts that contain "on" as part of words in their fields.
@ (ignore case)
e.g., @Sonnmatt
To search for contacts which have "sonnmatt" or "SONNMATT", etc., as part of their fields.
The following extended examples are aimed at facilitating the process of entering search expressions. They will illustrate the most controversial and difficult cases in order to diminish the possibility of making a mistake and thus increasing the search results accuracy.
The default OR operator:
By default, Contact Search finds the contacts that include any of the keywords which are entered in the Find What field. The contacts containing more matching results will go first. Thus, if you simply type Sonnmatt Design, the system will consider this search expression in the following way: Sonnmatt | Design and will show all contacts that have any of these words.
The logical AND operator:
This operator is not a default one. It is used by the program to search for the contacts whose textual information includes all keywords entered in the Find What field with this operator. Please note that these keywords may or may not be located in the same field or in the same record related to the contact. But the position in the search results list will reflect the relevance of each found contact: the ones containing matches within the same field or record will go first. Thus, if you have entered bicycle & discount, the system will look for these words within the textual information of the contact (for instance, the word bicycle may be found in the opportunities and discount in the interactions involving this contact).
Case sensitivity by default:
The keywords entered in the Find What field are case-sensitive by default. If you put @ at the beginning of the search expression, you will ask the system not to take case into consideration while searching.
For example:
manager - case-sensitive
@manager - case-insensitive.
Exact phrase:
The search expression entered (or converted by the program) in single quotes presupposes that the system looks for the exact phrase which should be located in one field of a particular record; the match should reflect the order of the words precisely as they appear in the search expression.
If you type 'London Light Company', the system will find exactly this phrase which is located in one field of the contact.
Search expression optimization:
To enhance the program's speed while searching, Contact Search has the query optimization function. This feature removes the redundant elements from the search expression.
For example:
If you enter 'Sonnmatt Design' | Sonnmatt, the program will simplify the search expression and will look for Sonnmatt.
If you enter 'Sonnmatt Design' & Sonnmatt, the program will search for 'Sonnmatt Design'.
There are some unacceptable ways of entering search expressions. If you use them, the program will show the Incorrect query. warning message. Following are some examples of an incorrect search expression and their explanation:
Sonnmatt && Design - only one logical operator is allowed before every keyword.
Sonnmatt <>& Design - wrong order of the phrase components.
@'london light company' - you may not look for the exact phrase and at the same time ignore the case.
*? , @&, *&, @* - you may not enter a search expression which consists of the wildcards combination only.
@sonnmatt@design - you may not use wildcards (@) in the middle of the search word.
Generating Contact Search Index