Suppose that somebody asked you to find a contact with a first name similar to "Michael", but possible something different such as "Michelle" or "Michał". If you search for "Mich%" you will find all these variations, including a contact who is supposed to be named "Michael" but whose name was misspelled as "Micheal". Wildcards can be used before, after, or even within words. For example, searching on 'Mich%el' will exclude "Michał" and "Micheal" but still find "Michelle" and "Michael". T his search is not case sensitive. Entering "mi%el" in lowercase will also find contacts with an upper case 'M' in their name.
COMPONENT SEARCHING Most CiviCRM components offer a search on the data they maintain, such as Find contributions, Find members, etc. T hese forms work in a similar way to Advanced search but return rows of the main objects associated with the components, instead of contacts. Find Members returns memberships, Find Participants shows event registrations, Find Contributions returns contributions and so on. Each component search has its own Action list. See the Component sections for more details.
SEARCH BUILDER Advanced search lets you choose from a wide range of criteria, but it has limitations. T he main limitation is that the search criteria you enter into different fields are "ANDed" together. T he Search Builder tool provides an alternative for situations when you need to search using OR for some criteria. For example, you can build a search for contacts who are born within a range of dates OR who are female. T o do this, access the Search Builder tool and Edit Search Criteria from the navigation menu: Search > Search Builder. T o AND criteria (which means to find results matching all criteria specified), click Another search field and enter criteria under Include contacts where. T o OR criteria (which means to find results matching either one OR the other criterion), enter one criterion in Include contacts where and the other under Also include contacts where
Search Builder is intended for advanced users and requires you to use specific formats for your search values.
Fuzzy Matches If you want to search on partial names or other incomplete phrases - use the LIKE operator, and use the % symbol before or after your search term. For example, to find contacts whose last name begins with "Gree": Record T ype Field Operator Value Individuals
Last Name
LIKE
Gree%
Search Builder requires special values when matching on values which are stored as keys in the data. T his includes Groups, T ags, States, Countries, yes/no (boolean) fields and multiple-choice custom fields. Specific date formats are also required. T he following list describes what format you need to use to search for specific terms.
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