Search functionality - returning matches on subset of a search string. Also, wild card usage is non

Lee Denis - Smartsheet Certified User 2016

It appears that Search is not working correctly.  Please review the Search functionality and also the use of wild cards.

 

1)  The search results will include matches to the full search string but also to any 3+ characters within that string.

 

For example: A search for beets would return a results list that would include beets but also any word containing  bee, eet or ets such as bee, beef, beekeepers, frisbee, assets, wetsuit, meeting and Smartsheet .

 

2)  The usage of wild cards within the Search functionality similary should be revised to match standard usage of logical expressions.  Specifically, a wild card will represent one or more characters and can be placed anywhere within the search string (before, after, middle and multiple).

 

For example:  In the Smartsheet Help section, the following expression is used as a sample string and lists some results as follows - 123* will return the values 

• 1234
  ABC-123-DEF
  ABC-123.4

The last 2 lines should only be returned if the wild card was used before the search string as well as after it like this *123*.

JamesR

Lee,

 

Smartsheet searches do seem to use a fuzzy search methodology rather than the conventional database search criteria.  I agree that the more conventional methodology is more accurate and I would prefer that it used this method.  However it may be that they use the fuzzy method due to it not only searching data stored in database structures but also web based pages.

 

Maybe the ability to choose the method would be good in which case I would vote for that if it was am enhancement request.

J. Craig Williams

I too would like improvements in the search algorithm/methodolgies.

 

This is an excerpt from an exchange with support on Nov 16 2016:

 

To confirm, our previous search engine would perform a wildcard search to be able to locate parts of a value (e.g. the first six numbers of the ID number). With the recent changes to Search, we have removed the hidden wildcard and you now need to include * at the end of the search string in order to perform a wildcard search.

 

What this means, however is that a search for ppline* WILL return  pipeline.

I usually get too many hits on searches now and am usually in need a drink after using the feature for very long.

 

It seems as if the developers, who are usually very competent in my opinion, have never used a search function in any other program. Ever.

But that may be the wine talking.

Is it better to have too many wrong hits as opposed to not enough of the right ones?

 

Craig