Like and = (1 Viewer)

[kirkm]

Is there a solution for this kind of scenario?
I'm searching through a list of Performers, lets say "Queen" and "The Rolling Stones"
If I search for *Rolling Stones* I'll get instances of "The Rolling Stones". Good.
But if I search for *Queen*" I'll get "Queen Vs The Miami Project" amongst others. Bad.

So perhaps a buttone to select "Absolute" or "Like"? but - is there a better way ?
Thanks.

 

[theDBguy]

But how do you decide which results are bad? Computers work with logic. If you can specify the logic, the computer will simply do what you tell it to.

 

[Isaac]

Is there a solution for this kind of scenario?
I'm searching through a list of Performers, lets say "Queen" and "The Rolling Stones"
If I search for *Rolling Stones* I'll get instances of "The Rolling Stones". Good.
But if I search for *Queen*" I'll get "Queen Vs The Miami Project" amongst others. Bad.

So perhaps a buttone to select "Absolute" or "Like"? but - is there a better way ?
Thanks.

Are you referring to a GUI you've built to let your customers search things?

If so, then yes - you may want to give them a choice of operand, in friendly terms.

Was that your question?

It could be that what you're after is the difference between
like '*Queen*'
vs
like '*Queen'

but I can't tell.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Computers do two kinds of matches for most searches. Exact matches - where an "=" sign is used and the computer looks for exactly what you used as the comparand, or "Like" matches - where you have some sort of regular expression that can include wildcard characters, and the computer returns whatever matches the pattern. If the pattern allows for variation, you get variation.

In the specific case you named, there is the possibility of searching for "*Queen" - meaning anything that ends with "Queen" - but it allows prefixes.

 

[kirkm]

The search is for "Queen" from a list that might contain

Queen Vs The Miami Project
Queen
Queens Of The Stone Age
The Good The Bad & The Queen

In that case =Queen would do it. Both *Queen or Queen* would fail.
My question was how is that handled by the Pros? That is, to select just the required one?
I suspect it can't be done, but I'm asking 'cause there's a lot I don't know !

 

[theDBguy]

The search is for "Queen" from a list that might contain

Queen Vs The Miami Project
Queen
Queens Of The Stone Age
The Good The Bad & The Queen

In that case =Queen would do it. Both *Queen or Queen* would fail.
My question was how is that handled by the Pros? That is, to select just the required one?
I suspect it can't be done, but I'm asking 'cause there's a lot I don't know !

Sorry, you lost me. Perhaps, I'm just too sleepy.

Maybe I'll understand what you mean after a good night's rest, or maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and find you already got it figured out.

Have a good night. See you in the morning.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

OK, from your list of four choices, and you claim there is only one choice, you would search for Trim$(Fieldname) = "Queen" to get the second record and no other. If there is even the slightest chance that you could have spaces, you need to "prepare" the search field. On the other hand, if you know that there were no leading or trailing spaces in the field, you wouldn't need the TRIM function.

 

[CJ_London]

I'm searching through a list of Performers, lets say "Queen" and "The Rolling Stones"

sounds to me like either your table structure is incorrect or you need to clarify your criteria

Queen and the rolling stones are performers, Queen Vs The Miami Project is an album and should not be classified as a performer

 

[Isaac]

the whole purpose of using the equal sign is if your user already knows that they are searching for that specifically and nothing else.

the whole reason for using a wild card is that they are going to expect it will bring up more things than just that exact text. That's normal behavior. you give them a search results in a little list box and then let them click on the list box to select the exact one..

 

[theDBguy]

Sorry, you lost me. Perhaps, I'm just too sleepy.

Maybe I'll understand what you mean after a good night's rest, or maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and find you already got it figured out.

Have a good night. See you in the morning.

Okay, after a good night's rest, I had a thought. Maybe something like this is what you want (where the user has flexibility to search specific requirements).

Remember when I asked you "how do you decide" what results you want? This feature, or something similar to it, tells Access exactly what your decision was.

Hope that helps...