# Advance Search: Add "Contains", "Begins With" and "Ends With" to the list of choices

**URL:** <https://pug.phocassoftware.com/t/advance-search-add-contains-begins-with-and-ends-with-to-the-list-of-choices/1315>\
**Category:** Product Ideas\
**Tags:** search\
**Created:** [October 14, 2019, 6:20pm UTC](https://pug.phocassoftware.com/t/advance-search-add-contains-begins-with-and-ends-with-to-the-list-of-choices/1315 "2019-10-14T18:20:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![twhitson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@twhitson](https://pug.phocassoftware.com/u/twhitson)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 6:20pm UTC](https://pug.phocassoftware.com/t/advance-search-add-contains-begins-with-and-ends-with-to-the-list-of-choices/1315/1 "2019-10-14T18:20:45Z")

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Please add a “Contains” option to the list of searches in the Advance Search window. The “Like” and “Not Like” options do not seem to be specific enough.

 ![Advance%20Search%20contains](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/phocassoftware/original/1X/7732f652cf817bfeccb48beb6ed715b7ef670ac9.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![twhitson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@twhitson](https://pug.phocassoftware.com/u/twhitson)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 6:27pm UTC](https://pug.phocassoftware.com/t/advance-search-add-contains-begins-with-and-ends-with-to-the-list-of-choices/1315/2 "2019-10-14T18:27:04Z")

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It would make searches much easier to be able to select a specific string to look for within a field. For example: a Contains search of “XXXX” in the Product Code field in the Inventory database that would return all codes that Contain that string - 123XXXX321, XXXX321123, 123321XXXX and so on.

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**Author:** ![JonKemp](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/pug.phocassoftware.com/jonkemp/32/334_2.png) [@JonKemp](https://pug.phocassoftware.com/u/JonKemp)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 7:40am UTC](https://pug.phocassoftware.com/t/advance-search-add-contains-begins-with-and-ends-with-to-the-list-of-choices/1315/3 "2019-10-15T07:40:03Z")

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Hi,

Although I do see the merit of “contains”, this can be done already using widcards. So if you need to get this in a hurry, the below should help.

For example you are looking for a customer which starts with an “A” but then only have 3 additional characters (like ALDI) you could put: “A???”

You can get quite funky with these clauses such as “[a-c]\*” which will return all customers starting with the letters A, B or C. There are quite a few combinations to be had. Although not as user user friendly as “contains”, it does the same job and are standard querying techniques. Here is a page with all sorts of wonderful query wildcards:  
[https://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql\_wildcards.asp](https://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_wildcards.asp)  
@twhitson - your example can be done using wilcards either with the “#” (if a numeric field or “?” if its alphanumeric.

Hope this helps.  
Jon

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**Author:** ![StuartH](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/pug.phocassoftware.com/stuarth/32/394_2.png) [@StuartH](https://pug.phocassoftware.com/u/StuartH)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 8:05am UTC](https://pug.phocassoftware.com/t/advance-search-add-contains-begins-with-and-ends-with-to-the-list-of-choices/1315/4 "2019-10-15T08:05:31Z")

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In the list of options you have EQUALS which is looking for an exact match such as:

EQUALS ALDI (using Jon’s example) would only return the record where it matches exactly

However, you also have LIKE which is looking for something similar or containing:

LIKE A\* would return anything where A was the first letter, so ALDI, ALDO, ASDA, AMERICAN GOLF etc. You can enter as much of the string as you like.

You can conversely use the \* at the other end to find things that end with any number of letters.

By entering an \* at both ends you’re looking for a string anywhere within a field.

You can ever filter for special characters if doing some data cleanse etc (I often do this) such as \* & \* to find records containing an & sign or the dredded \* , \* which is a system developers nightmare!