Can,t get substring search to work

[ellentk]

Is this the correct syntax for a substring search for aaa, for example:

Enter substr:aaa in either the subject or anywhere box of the advanced search screen?

when I just tried that, every message was returned. So what am I doing wrong?
(Needless to say but I will anyway - this worked fine in the classic interface.)

[Terry]

R u selecting the folder first

[ellentk]

Yes. I click advanced search from the folder I want tomsearch and that folder automatically appears in the "In" box.
I also tested by changing the folder as well - same result: substr didn't work.

[n5bb]

Ellen, you want to type substr:aaa in either one of these two places:

• Search box (which by default shows in grey Search mail)
• Anywhere field in the Advanced Search tool

If you use substr:aaa as a search term, you will find matches to strings of which aaa is a substring (such as aaa, baaa, baaack,and aaardvark) in the following email fields:

• Addressing fields (From, To, Cc)
• Subject

A simple substr:aaa search will not search the body of messages by default, because such a search is very slow on a large folder. You can force a body substring search, but it may time out so is not recommended in most cases. The syntax is:
substr:(body:aaaa)

If you use the search string automatically (in the main search box or the advanced Anywhere search field), you will find that word or similar stemmed words (such as automatic) in the following fields of the message:

• Subject
• Message body

A non-stemmed search is used for:

• Addressing fields (From, To, Cc)

So if you can live with a normal exact or stemmed search (rather than a substring search), just enter the term in the Search mail field and the body will also be searched.

• If you want to search for a phrase containing spaces, use quotes: "such a signal"
• If you do not use quotes, such a signal will search for messages containing all three words such AND a AND signal, where those three words could be anywhere in the addressing fields, subject, or message body
• You should enter the search terms in all lowercase. The logical operators AND, OR, or NOT must be in all uppercase. Use parenthesis for grouping, as I showed earlier.
• You can also use prefix searches, such as:
  ell*
  which searches for all words beginning with ell.

Bill

[brong]

Actually we no longer stem From/To/CC. I guess there might be some benefit in helping to find both Rob and Robert, but it is nowhere near as valuable as for Subject and Body, and the search box already auto-completes email addresses from your addressbook.

Another thing - it's not rolled out to everyone yet because I still need to rebuild indexes, but if your index is recently build you get prefix matching, so you can search for from:Rob* and get Rob and Robert Give it a go You need the letters at the start of the word because of how the indexing works.

[n5bb]

Thanks for the clarifications, Bron. Prefix matching is working for me.

Bill

[ellentk]

Thanks for these great tips, Bill.

Bron, prefix matching is working for me too.

Ellen

[ellentk]

Thanks for these great tips, Bill.

Bron, prefix matching is working for me too. Thanks.

Ellen