User Guide

586 Chapter 25: Using Verity Search Expressions
To search for a wildcard character as a literal, place a backslash character before it; for example:
• To match a question mark or other wildcard character, precede the ? with one backslash. For
example, type the following in a search form: Checkers\?
• To match a literal asterisk, you precede the * with two backslashes, and enclose the search term
with either single or double quotation marks. For example, type the following in a search form:
'M\\*' (or "M\\*") The following is the corresponding CFML code:
<cfsearch name = "quick_search"
collection="bbb"
type = "simple"
criteria="'M\\*'">
Note: The last line is equivalent to
criteria='"M\\*"'>.
Searching for special characters
The search engine handles a number of characters in particular ways as the following table
describes:
To search for special characters as literals, precede the following nonalphanumeric characters with
a backslash character (\) in a search string:
• comma (,)
• left parenthesis (
• right parenthesis )
• double-quotation mark (")
• backslash (\)
• left curly brace ({)
• left bracket ([)
• less than sign (<)
• backquote (`)
In addition to the backslash character, you can use paired backquote characters (` `) to interpret
special characters as literals. For example, to search for the wildcard string “a{b” you can surround
the string with back quotation marks, as follows:
`a{b`
Characters Description
, ( ) [ These characters end a text token.
A token is a variable that stores configurable properties. It lets the administrator or
user configure various settings and options.
= > < ! These characters also end a text token. They are terminated by an associated end
character.
' ` < { [ ! These characters signify the start of a delimited token. They are terminated by an
associated end character.