Syntax for Search Queries
The behaviour of a BW search that you perform on the SAP HANA database depends your chosen search method. The search can thus return quite different results for one and the same search query.
With fuzzy search, exact search and pattern search, you can use placeholders (%, *, ?, _).
With fuzzy search and exact search, you can also use the following special characters:
| Name | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| OR | sap OR hana | A search like sap OR hana looks for all records containing "sap" or "hana" in the selected attributes. The key word OR is case sensitive. sap or hana therefore looks for records containing "sap" and "or" and "hana". If your search query contains the letters "or", make sure that these are not capitalized (OR). Otherwise, the OR semantic will be applied, as described above. |
| - (Minus Sign) | sap -hana | A search like sap -hana looks for all records that containg "sap", but do not contain "hana". If the second term is a search phrase, as in sap "-hana", the system looks for records containing "sap" und "-hana". In text columns, the minus sign is removed from the second term, as it serves as a separator. If your search query contains terms beginning with a minus sign, make sure that you put these terms in quotation marks. Otherwise, the NOT semantics will be applied, as described above. |
| " (Quotation Marks) | "sap hana" | A search like "sap hana" looks for all records containing SAP HANA, without any other terms. |
| * (Asterisk) | hana* | The asterisk activates a placeholder search. In this case, the system does not perform a fuzzy search. It performs an exact search with placeholders instead. |
| % (Percentage Sign) | hana% | The system replaces a percentage sign with an asterisk and performs a placeholder search. |