Search operators

You can use search operators when performing a search. A search operator is a sign or a word that expands your search options. You should write the search operators with your search criteria.

For Date and DateTime fields, you can enter values such as +1d or -1w to adjust the date fields by the number of years, quarters, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes or even seconds. See Shortcut keys for more information.

Searches work differently in text fields and in free text fields.


Search using text fields

Not all search operators can be used across all search pages and fields. See how you can use the search operators below.

Operator Name Description

*

Wildcard

Replaces one or more characters.

^

Hat (Circumflex)

Removes the distinction between uppercase and lowercase letters.

|

Or

Searches for individual elements where one or more of the entered words appear.

&

And

Searches for individual elements where all the entered words appear.

To search for the character &, not as an operator, but, for example, as part of the name of a contact, you must insert a backslash before the character, that is, \&.


Search using free text fields

Not all operators can be used on all search pages and fields. See how you can use the search operators below.

Operator Name Description

*

Wildcard

Replaces one or more characters.

  • [normal search] Toggle this search parameter to the Free text search field to exclude leading asterisk wildcard characters (*) from the search term. This is the default setting.
  • [extended search] Toggle this search parameter to the Free text search field to include leading asterisk wildcard characters (*) to the search term.

Using searches, for example *sun and *sun* is not recommended for free text searches as all WorkZone elements are traversed for all full and partial occurrences of the search term. This type of search can produce a large number of results, consume noticeable system resources and take significantly longer to display the search results.

?

Question mark

Replaces exactly one character.

|,

OR

Or

Searches for individual elements where one or more of the entered words appear.

For free text searches for documents, the search is performed in the meta data fields and in the document itself.

&,

AND

And

Searches for individual elements where all the entered words appear.

To search for the character & not as an operator, but, for example, as part of the name of a contact, you must insert a backslash before the character, that is, \&.

~,

NOT

Not

Searches for items where the words you enter after the operator do not occur.

You should always search for an item that contains "<word_to_find> NOT <word_to_find_not>". Searching for NOT deposits will produce no result.