Introduction

While some of the database fields support boolean mode searches, the majority of them use standard searching techniques. While this is slightly less powerful than a boolean mode search, it can still allow you to quickly locate exactly what you are looking for. This document will describe how standard searches work in the LinkX control panel.

Standard Search Overview

Standard searches will look for the exact that you enter in the text box, and do not support operators like +, 0, or " characters for phrases. Those operators would be considered part of the search phrase, so they should only be used if you are looking for that literal value in the field you are searching. In the control panel you will find two different search types, depending on the function. Advanced Searches allow you to specify the search type (matches, contains, etc) whereas Simple Searches do not. You can identify simple searches by the fact that they will not have a drop down selection field where you can choose the search type.

Simple Searches

Simple searches will look for the term you entered anywhere in the field you have selected. So, for example, if you search for the word "stop" that would match not only "stop" but also "stopped", "stopping", etc.

Advanced Searches

Advanced searches allow you to specify the type of search that should be done. A drop down selection field will appear containing the following options:

Matches	This will look for an exact match with the search term you entered. The field you select will need to have the exact search term as it's value in order to match. For example, if you enter 12 for the search term when searching the Link ID field it would match only the link in the database with Link ID 12 and not those with ids 123, 1298, 1412, etc.
Contains	This will look for the search term anywhere in the field you have selected. For example, if you enter 12 for the search term when searching the Link ID field it would match not only the link in the database with Link ID 12, but also those with ids 123, 1298, 1412, etc.
Starts With	This will look for the search term at the beginning of the field you have selected. For example, if you enter 12 for the search term when searching the Link ID field it would match not only the link in the database with Link ID 12, but also those with ids 123, 1298, 12684, etc. It would not match those with ids 1412, 1123, 7125, etc.
Less Than	This will look for values that are less than the search term. For example, if you enter 12 for the search term when searching the Link ID field it would match all of the links in the database with a Link ID of 11 or smaller (11,10,9,8,7,etc).
Greater Than	This will look for values that are greater than the search term. For example, if you enter 12 for the search term when searching the Link ID field it would match all of the links in the database with a Link ID of 13 or greater (13,14,15,16,etc).
Between	This will look for values that are between the two search values that you entered. This type of search requires that you entere a comma separated list, with the small value first and the large value second. For example, if you enter 12,50 for the search term when searching the Link ID field it would match all of the links in the database with a Link ID of 12 through 50 (12,13,14,...,48,49,50).
Empty	This will look for empty fields in the database. You do not need to enter a search term when using this search type. It will return all of the items that have an empty value (empty string or NULL) for the field you have selected.