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dropdown search in a table - does field size affect the type of search?


Hi,

does anyone know what the criteria is for how the dropdown filter search in a table operates related to the size of the values in the field? For instance, if the field has many long values in it (i.e. a Comments field), the search seems to switch to a wildcarded search, similar to *abcdefg*, but in fields with shorter values, it operates like abcdefg*.

is this related to how QlikView catagorizes the field type when it's loaded?

Not an issue, but i did get some questions about it recently.

1 Reply
Siva_Sankar
Master II
Master II

Richard:

Find the information about search below.

Text Search:
The simplest way of searching is text search. QlikView will search for field values matching a text string that you type.

In normal search (no wildcards are used), QlikView will look for words that begin in the same way as the search string. If the search string contains several words separated by blanks, QlikView will interpret it as several search strings and display field values that contain either of the strings.

If wildcards are used, only those records that match the entire search string will be displayed, that is a blank does not imply a logical OR. Wildcards may appear several times in the search string, regardless of their location. The following wildcards can be used:

* zero or more characters
? any single character
^ whole string

Press Enter to select the values found, or Esc to cancel the operation.

Example:

The following results are returned depending on the selected search method:

String Search method Result
ab Normal Returns all values that have words that begin with ab.
a* Wildcard Returns all values that begin with the letter a.
*b* Wildcard Returns all values that contain the letter b.

Fuzzy Search:
Fuzzy search is similar to standard search, with the exception that it compares and sorts all field values according to their degree of resemblance to the search string. Fuzzy search is especially useful in situations where misspelling is an issue. It can also help you find multiple values that are nearly identical to each other.

When a fuzzy search is made, a tilde-character (~) is displayed in front of the search string.

If starting a text search with a tilde-character, the text search window will open in fuzzy search mode. The search window will contain the tilde with the cursor placed after it. As you type, all values will be sorted by the degree of resemblance to the search string with the best matches at the top of the list. If you press Enter, the first value in the list will be selected.

Numeric Search:
You can make selections using numeric search as well. This is very similar to text search. The only difference is that the search string must begin with one of the following relational operators:

Operator Description
> greater than 
>= greater than or equal 
< less than 
<= less than or equal

Examples:

>900 will find all values greater than 900
<=900 will find all values less than or equal to 900
>900<1000 will find all values greater than 900 and less than 1000
<900>1000 will find all values less than 900 or greater than 1000

Initial Search Mode:
When starting to type text, the behavior may differ: in some cases, QlikView adds wildcards to the search string, to facilitate a wildcard search.

The preferred search mode can be set in the object properties and in User Preferences.

Search String Evaluation
After a search string has been entered or edited, QlikView evaluates which one of the above described search behaviors to select.

If the search string contains wildcard characters, a wildcard search will be made instead of normal search.

It is always possible to change the search mode simply by deleting or adding wild cards, a greater than (>) or smaller than (<) symbol in the search string.

Associated Search
The search box contains a chevron (>>) to the right. If you click it, the search box is expanded to the right and a secondary result set is displayed next to the primary result set. This secondary list contains search matches in other fields. It is now possible to click in the secondary result set and make temporary selections. Such selections will narrow down the result in the primary result set. Once you make a selection in the secondary list,you can enter a new search string before making the selection in the primary list. Finally, when you make a selection in the primary result set, the secondary result list is closed.

Advanced Search
For complex search expressions it is possible to use the Advanced Search dialog, which can be invoked by the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+F. If you start your text search with an equal sign (=),you may enter an advanced search expression involving search criteria for associated fields and full boolean logic. After the equal sign you can type any valid QlikView layout expression (Edit Expression Dialog). The expression will be evaluated for each field value in the search field. All values for which the search expression returns a non-zero value will be selected.

Example:

=MyField like 'A*' or MyField like '*Z'

if e.g. invoked from a list box containing the field MyField, the search would return all field values either starting with the letter A or ending with the letter Z.

Example:

=sum(Sales)>sum(Budget)

if e.g. invoked from a list box containing the field Salesman, the search would return all salesmen with an associated sales value larger than their associated Budget.

Regards.

Siva