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Performing Searches

This section discusses how to define search criteria, work with them, and use saved and recent searches.

This is the list of Defenition Name of the Pages which are used for doing Searches.

You can perform Boolean searches using field-level search criteria. You are not limited to natural language searches. The system displays a list of the searchable fields. For each field, you can enter a search operator and the search text. You can also decide whether to limit the results to records that meet all field-level criteria or whether to accept records that meet any field-level search specification.

Important! For Sybase only: When performing a search on a configurable search page, you must limit the number of search criteria (which includes search on field values and search by dataset rules in the Show in Results section) to 16 or fewer. The system displays an error and stops the search if the SQL statement that is built to execute the search contains more than 16 subqueries.

The following table describes the search operators that are available for field-level searching. The operators that appear depend on whether the field being searched is a string or a number:

Operator

Description

begins with

The field value matches the first characters of the value that you enter.

in

Enter a comma-delimited series of values and the system finds field values that match any one of the values that you entered.

Note: If the search data selected by the user for field exceeds 254 characters the system truncates the search results.

is blank

The value for the field in the database is blank.

not blank

The value for the field in the database is not blank.

not in

The value for the field in the database is not in the value that you enter.

bind

The field value is used as the bind object.

If you select the bind operator for a search field, you must specify a bind field object in the Field Search & Display Options section of the Search Fields page.

=

The field value is equal to the value that you enter.

not =

The field value is not equal to the value that you enter.

<

The field value is less than the field value that you enter.

>

The field value is greater than the value that you enter.

<=

The field value is less than or equal to the value that you enter.

>=

The field value is greater than or equal to the value that you enter.

contains

The field value contains the word or phrase that you entered.

between

The field value is between the two values that you enter.

For example, if you select BETWEEN and enter 100 and 200, the search returns values from 100 to 200, inclusive.

Note: Because the system stores time in milliseconds, PeopleSoft recommends that you do not use the equals (=) operator to do searches on Time fields. Use the between or greater than (>) operators instead.

After you initiate a search, some search pages allow you to edit the results. In these situations the page will have an Edit Data button. Clicking the Edit Data button makes some of the fields that appear in search results grid editable. The only fields that are not editable are the key fields.

The system applies the edits that you make to the database. The changes that you make to the search results grid are then reflected on the appropriate detail page for the component.

For example, a user can edit information from the lead list in PeopleSoft Sales. This allows for quick updates from a lead list without drilling back to the detail level.

For search-related pages that do not allow editing, you must click one of the link elements in the search results grid to view or edit data.

The system maintains separate lists of saved searches for each user. The system saves searches under your user ID. This enables you to save and reuse your search criteria. This feature is available if the Allow user to save search criteria field is selected on the Search Options page.

The behavior of the saved search depends on the preferences you set for the search page. If you select the Populate the grid automatically, apply the most recently used criteria option on the Personalize Search Settings page, the system performs the search immediately with the last search criteria you used.

If you select the Populate the grid automatically, apply my default saved search option, the system uses the search you designated as your default to perform the search.

You can modify the criteria before performing the search. Search criteria that uniquely identifies a row of data takes you directly to a page. Therefore, you can view, modify, or delete a saved search that uniquely identifies a row of data only if you do not use an automatic search option.

If PeopleSoft Marketing is licensed, you can set up the system to create audiences using saved search.

Important! Do not include the semicolon (;) and pipe (|) characters in a free form search field when you save search criteria. These are special characters that have dedicated usage in the CRM system.

Similar to saved searches, the system keeps a list of recent searches for each user. Recent searches are shown in the Used Saved Search field on search pages at runtime, followed by saved searches.

This example displays a runtime search page that has both recent and saved searches.

Image: Example of saved and recent searches at runtime

This example illustrates an example of saved and recent searches at runtime.

Example of saved and recent searches at runtime

Due to limited field length, the system uses symbols to represent search operators when recent searches are displayed in verbose mode. If the name string exceeds 50 characters, it will be truncated.

This table shows the mapping of search operators and symbols that represent them.

Operator

Corresponding Symbol

=

=

<

<

<=

<=

>

>

>=

>=

in

*

begins with

+

between

~

is blank

=?

contains

%

not =

!=

not in

!*

not blank

!?

and

&