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hic
Former Employee
Former Employee

One of the strengths of QlikView is its search engine. With it, you can find pieces of information in a fraction of a second and select the found field values. The response is immediate, which is necessary for the user experience. Without it, you would easily get an empty result set without understanding why.

 

Search strings can be made in many different ways, and QlikView will respond differently depending on how the search string is defined. Normally you just enter a text, and QlikView will match this against the beginning of the words in the field values. If several strings are entered, QlikView will return the union of the matches of each of the strings.

 

search multi.png

 

But if you instead use a wildcard in your search string, the evaluation of the search string will be made in a different way: the entire search string with the wild card will be matched against the entire field value, sometimes yielding more matches, sometimes fewer.

 

search h.png

 

If you want to create more complex search strings (and e.g. store them in actions or bookmarks) you can do this too. Just use (, |, & and double quotes to define the syntax.

 

search compound.png

 

In all the above cases, the search and the selection are made in one and the same field. But sometimes you want to make the selection in one field, but make the search in another. This can be done using the associated search, which is an indirect search method. Start with the field where you want to make the selection, enter the search string, and click on the small chevron to the right. You will then get a list of other fields containing this search string. By clicking the desired match, you will narrow down the number of matches in the primary list to show just the relevant values. You can then make your selection by hitting Enter.

 

search indir.png

 

Further, did you know that

  • In the user preferences and in the list box properties, you can define how a default search string should be created, but this does not affect how it is evaluated – only how it is created. Once created, you can add or remove wild cards as you please.
  • When you make a search and save the resulting selection in a bookmark, the bookmark will contain the search string and not the list of selected values. When the bookmark is applied, it will perform the search and select the found values. If data has changed, this may imply a different search result than before.
  • You can use the same search string in many places: In list boxes, in Set analysis, in the Advanced search dialog, in actions and in bookmarks.

 

Bottom line: The search string is a powerful tool that helps you find the values you want. Use it.

 

HIC

 

Further reading related to this topic:

Search - But what shall you find?

The Search String

The Expression Search

33 Comments
Anonymous
Not applicable

Thanks Henric, Very useful, as always. Regards.

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rustyfishbones
Master II
Master II

Explained and illustrated exceptionally well

Thanks Henric

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Not applicable

I wish for a way to turn off associated search for a listbox. I can set "List of fields" to empty and it don't execute, but the search expand and 'indicating' a associated search.

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Thanks Henric. I'd love to see a Part 2 that covers the use of expressions in searches, and how those can be saved as dynamic bookmarks.

3,989 Views
hic
Former Employee
Former Employee

Sounds like a plan.

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marthacano01
Partner - Creator
Partner - Creator

Thanks. Perfect explanation

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Thanks Henric. If you use *new *sh* wouldn't you get also the same result?

EDIT: Tak

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hic
Former Employee
Former Employee

Your string will also find 'New Hampshire' but they are still not really the same. Your search string assumes a specific order of the two sub-strings, whereas the compound search does not. The following search will not return the same result if you write it your way:

search o nn.png

HIC

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Clever_Anjos
Employee
Employee
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jagannalla
Partner - Specialist III
Partner - Specialist III

Thanks Henric for beautiful explanation. I like it.

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