You can perform advanced searches in the Issue Navigator using special syntax. This advanced syntax will not work in the Quick Search text box.
The contains text search box allows you to enter search query text and manipulate results using special syntax.
Basic text queries
A query is broken up into two parts: terms and operators. Terms are the most basic way of searching for issues. Terms used in queries are case insensitive.
There are two types of terms. A single term is a single word such as hello or dolly. A term phrase is a group of words surrounded by double quotes such as "hello dolly".
Fuzzy searches
Fuzzy searches ask BTS to return results that are close by may not be equal to the terms used. Use the tilde (~) symbol at the end of a single word term to perform a fuzzy search.
For example to search for a term similar in spelling to 'roam' use the fuzzy search roam~. This syntax will return search results for terms like 'foam' and 'roams'.
Proximity searches
BTS can find words that are a specific distance from each other in a phrase, called proximity searches. Use the tilde (~) symbol at the end of a phrase to perform a proximity search.
For example to search for the terms 'media' and 'player' that appear within 10 words of each other, type "media player"~10.
Wildcard searches
BTS supports single and multiple character wildcard searches. Wildcard searches allow you to find terms, synonyms, or word forms using patterns and character replacements. A wildcard symbol can be used in any position of a term or phrase, except at the beginning of the word.
The single character wildcard search looks for terms that match that with the single character replaced. To perform a single character wildcard search use the ? symbol.
For example, to search for 'text' or 'test', you can use the search te?t.
Multiple character wildcard searches looks for 0 or more characters between or after your queried terms. To perform a multiple character wildcard search use the * symbol.
For example, to search for 'Windows', 'Win95' and/or 'WindowsNT', you can use the search win*.
The wildcard * does not match a blank space. If you are searching for two or more terms that may sometimes be written as one term, use a combination. For instance, if you are looking for 'access keys', which could also be written as 'accesskeys', use the following search string: accesskeys "access keys".
Boost the relevance of a search term
BTS automatically determines the relevance search terms based on the results it finds. You can make a term more relevant than another, if needed. To boost a term use the caret (^) symbol with a number indicating the term's relevance. This relevance number is called a boost factor. The higher the boost factor, the more relevant the term will be.
For example, if you are searching for OOM crash, and you want the term OOM to be more relevant, you can boost it by typing OOM^4 crash.
This will make items with the term 'OOM' appear more relevant.
You can also boost phrases as in the example: "OOM crash"^4 querying. This will promote the relevance of the entire phrase 'OOM crash'.
Define search rules with operators
Operators allow terms and queries to be combined. BTS supports AND, OR, NOT, + and - as valid operators.
Boolean operators must appear in all caps.
The OR operator
OR finds all the results matching two queries, even if they aren't both present or are unrelated.
The OR operator links two queries and returns matches if either of the queries are present. Two pipes (||) can be used in place of OR.
For example, to search for items that contain either 'OOM crash' or 'OOM recover' use the query: "OOM crash" OR "OOM recover".
The AND operator
AND finds all the results matching two queries, but only if both queries are present.
The AND operator matches items where both terms exist anywhere in the text of a single document. Two ampersands (&&) can be used in place of AND.
For example, to search for documents that contain 'OOM crash' and 'issue tracking' use the query: "OOM crash" AND "issue tracking".
The NOT operator
NOT finds all the results matching two queries, but excludes results that contain the second query.
The NOT operator excludes items that contain the term after NOT. The NOT operator cannot be used with just one term. The exclamation mark (!) can be used in place of NOT.
To search for items that contain "Startup" but not "Installation" use the query: "Startup" NOT "Installation".
The required term operator
The required operator requires that the term after the + symbol exist somewhere in the results.
For example, to search for items that must contain 'crash' and may contain 'OOM' use the query: +crash OOM.
The excluded term operator
The exclude or prohibit operator excludes items that contain the term after the - symbol.
For example, to search for items that contain 'Startup' but not 'Installation' use the query: "Startup" -Installation.
Grouping queries
BTS uses parentheses to group queries to form sub queries. This can be very useful if you want to finely control the logic for your search.
For example, if you want to search for items that contain 'Mac' and 'Startup', but do not want to include 'Installation', you could type: Mac AND (Startup NOT Installation).
Do not use the grouping character at the start of a search query, as this will result in an error.
