Advanced Search Operators

Use advanced search operators and Boolean characters to combine words, phrases, and characters for precise search results. Product Owners can search for feature variations, Team Members can find related work items, and Administrators can locate specific configurations using these operators.

Wildcards

Add an asterisk * to the end of a search term to match all variations with that prefix.

Example: Searching for Cust* matches Customer, Custodian, and Custard.

Boolean operators

Combine search terms using Boolean operators. When searching for asset names, use the long form operators (AND, OR, NOT) and enclose the search string in double quotes. Shorthand operators like & and - are treated as part of the search string.

AND operator

Narrow search results to include assets containing all specified terms.

Operator	Description	Example
AND	Find assets containing both "Customer" and "Enhancement"	Customer AND Enhancement
Shorthand	Alternative symbols	& + , ; or space

Examples:

• Customer & Enhancement
• Customer + Enhancement
• Customer, Enhancement
• Customer; Enhancement
• Customer Enhancement (space implies AND)

OR operator

Broaden search results to include assets containing any of the specified terms.

Operator	Description	Example
OR	Find assets containing either "Customer" or "Enhancement"	Customer OR Enhancement
Shorthand	Alternative symbol	|

Example: Customer \| Enhancement

NOT operator

Narrow search results by excluding specified terms.

Operator	Description	Example
NOT	Find assets containing "Customer" but excluding "Enhancement"	Customer NOT Enhancement
Shorthand	Alternative symbols	- !

Examples:

• Customer - Enhancement
• Customer ! Enhancement

NEAR operator

Find assets where two terms appear in close proximity to each other.

Operator	Description	Example
NEAR	Find assets where "Customer" and "Enhancement" appear near each other	Customer NEAR Enhancement
Shorthand	Alternative symbol	~

Example: Customer ~ Enhancement

Set operator order

Use parentheses () to control the order of operator evaluation.

Example: Customer AND (Enhancement OR Change)

This forces the OR to be evaluated first, which is equivalent to:

(Customer AND Enhancement) OR (Customer AND Change)

Phrasal searches

Separating terms with a space is the same as using the AND operator. To search for a specific phrase, enclose it in quotes.

Example: To find assets containing the exact phrase "Customer Enhancement", search for "Customer Enhancement" (with quotes).

Stop words

Common words like "A", "I", "The", and single characters are "stop words" that are ignored when building the search index.

• On-Demand (hosted) accounts: Hosted servers ignore stop words, so including them will not impact results. Stop words will not create positive matches.
• On-premise accounts: Default SQL Server configuration causes unintended results when including stop words. Searching for "The Dog" returns no results because "The" is not in the index. Searching for "The Dog" (with quotes) returns all assets containing "Dog" because "The" is ignored.

For the complete list, see Search Stop Words List.

Characters as word breaks

When a character exists in the middle of a text string, the search engine interprets it as a word break (equivalent to a space).

Example: "Advanced.Search" appears to the search engine as two separate terms: "Advanced" and "Search".

Related Topics

• Search Agility - Search methods and options
• Search Stop Words List - Common words excluded from search
• My Views - Save grid views for quick access