OR Searches, AND Searches, and Multi-Valued Fields 

Procedure

When you select multiple values within and across search dimensions, they are combined as follows:

·        ORing: Multiple selections within a search dimension expand the search results. Each of the search selections are ORed together so that a record matches if it matches any of the values you select.

·        ANDing: Selections across search dimensions narrow the search results. Each of the dimensions are ANDed together so that a record matches if it matches selections in all of the search dimensions.

ORing multiple selections within a search dimension makes sense for a single-valued field, which cannot possibly match more than a single value for each record. If you were to instead AND multiple selections so that each record must match all of the values you select, you would always get no search results.

By contrast, a multi-valued field can store multiple values within a single record, so that ANDing multiple values can sometimes be more appropriate than ORing them. For example, if you select values Green and Red for the multi-valued attribute Color, you may want to match records that have: (1) either Green or Red (OR search); or (2) both Green and Red (AND search).

For multi-valued fields and attributes, MDM allows you to change the way multiple selections are combined from OR to AND.

To set a multi-valued field to AND multiple selections:

       1.      Make the multi-valued field the current search tab, or select the multi-valued attribute in the taxonomy search tab.

       2.      Right-click on the current search tab or the selected attribute and choose AND Multi-Valued Search from the context menu, or choose Search ® AND Multi-Valued Search from the main menu. MDM places a check next to the command in the menu, displays the AND icon next to the field or attribute name as shown in figure below, and ANDs multiple search selections for the field or attribute.

As you select each value, MDM narrows down the values displayed in every list or hierarchy not only in every other search tab but also in the current search tab. For this reason, Shift and drag selection is not available with multi-valued AND search.

The command is a toggle. To change back to OR from AND, choose the AND Multi-Valued Search command again.