Here's how you can refine your search. Confluence will ignore common words like "the" unless you place your query within quotes.
Exact phrase search
To search for content that contains the exact phrase "chalk and cheese"
"chalk and cheese"
Confluence will ignore common words (stop words) like "and" above. This is the default list of stop words used by lucene. Please cast your vote towards this improvement request.
For eg:
- Searching for "The One" returns all pages containing "One" because "The" is a stop word.
- Searching for "Cheese One" would only return pages in which "One" appears as the first word (other than stop words) after "Cheese". So it would return "Cheese for One" or "Cheese to One" or "Cheese One". It would not match "One Cheese" or "Cheese Flamingo One"
Or Search
To search for content that contains one of the terms, "chalk" OR "cheese"
chalk OR cheese
To search for content that contains both the terms "chalk" AND "cheese"
chalk AND cheese
To search for content that contains "chalk" but NOT "cheese"
chalk NOT cheese
Similar to the NOT search, to search for content that contains "chalk" and "butter" but NOT "cheese"
chalk butter -cheese
To search for content that MUST contain "chalk" but CAN contain either "cheese" or "butter" use the search:
(cheese OR butter) AND chalk
To search for content with "chalk" in its title, where title is the field keyword.
title:chalk
Wild card searches
Single character
To search for "butter" or "batter" you can use the search:
b?tter
To search for "chicken" or "chickpea" you can use the search:
chick*
Wildcards can be used anywhere within a word, except at the very beginning.For example:
*chick
is an invalid search term.
Multiple characters
To search for "chick" or "chickpea":
c*c*
You can also combine search characters to get the exact word. For example the search term below will return "chick" yet not "chickpea":
c*c?
| Case Sensitivity in wildcard searches Since the fix for CONF-13846 Confluence is case sensitive for wildcard searches. You should note that all the example searches given previously search across the default set of fields which are stored as lower case and therefore all searches of that style should be given lower case search terms (as shown in the examples). However, if you were to search one of the case sensitive fields, such as 'content-name-untokenized' the case of your search term would need to match the document you are searching for. |
Proximity searches
This search ensure that the two words specified must be within a certain number of words of each other to be included.
"octagon post"~1
will return "Octagon blog post".
"octagon post"~0
Range search
Searches for names that fall alphabetically within the specifed range.
[adam to ben]
Fuzzy search
This search looks for words spelled similarly.
To search for octagon, if unsure about spelling:
octogan~
Combined search
You can also combine various search terms together:
o?tag* AND past~ AND ("blog" AND "post")
RELATED TOPICS
Searching Confluence
Confluence Search Fields
Take me back to Confluence User's Guide
Comments (33)
Nov 07, 2006
Gary Pullis says:
Sorry about that. I meant to say... I've noticed that + seems to work too. AFAIK...Sorry about that. I meant to say...
I've noticed that + seems to work too. AFAIK...
and
get you the same results.
Gotta remember to hit that preview button before posting.
Jan 30, 2007
P. Payette says:
If wildcards are invalid at the beginning of the string, how can I sea...If wildcards are invalid at the beginning of the string, how can I search for *@domain.com ?
This would be useful to regroup emails coming from a particular source or client.
Feb 04, 2008
Roy Hartono says:
I found that underscore works the same as quotations. So if I am searching for t...I found that underscore works the same as quotations.
So if I am searching for the exact phrase for:
The following:
would return the same result.
Apr 09, 2008
Ankur Ojha says:
Hi, If I have a text on pages for e.g. tag1 this is some temp data tag1-end t...Hi,
If I have a text on pages for e.g.
tag1 this is some temp data tag1-end
tag2 this is some test data tag2-end
tag3 and this is dummy data tag3-end
and I want to searxh for "temp" which which lies between tag1 & tag1-end, what would be the query syntax ?
Something like : contentBody:"tag1*temp*tag1-end" ???
Thnx
Apr 10, 2008
Mei Yan Chan says:
Hi Ankur, Lucene will basically consider this, tag1*temp*tag1-end, as a full te...Hi Ankur,
Lucene will basically consider this, tag1*temp*tag1-end, as a full text and does not consider on other random characters. On the other hand, if you were to remove the quote, the hyphen from tag1-end, will be tokenized, hence, displaying results from pages consisting of tag1 and end as well.
Regards,
Mei
Jul 01, 2008
Rosie Piller says:
Hi, Noticed a couple of typos on this (otherwise excellent) wiki page, plu...Hi,
Noticed a couple of typos on this (otherwise excellent) wiki page, plus I had a question about usage.
First, notice the typo serch just ahead of the other typo, Mutliple, in Mutliple characters on this wiki page.
Also, regarding the following:
You can also combine search characters to get the exact word. For example the search term below will return "chic" yet not "chickpea":
c*c?
So does ? stand in for a single character but include no characters? I'm having mixed results. For example, I tried:
version?
and
JIRA?
and am getting far fewer results than I expect (based on previous searches).
Thanks, and don't forget about those typos!
Rosie
Jul 01, 2008
Sarah Maddox [Atlassian Technical Writer] says:
Hallo Rosie Thank you for pointing out the typos. I've fixed them. I hope someo...Hallo Rosie
Thank you for pointing out the typos. I've fixed them. I hope someone else will pick up on your questions
Cheers — Sarah
Jul 07, 2008
Azwandi Mohd Aris [Atlassian] says:
Hi Rosie, I believe the "?" character represents a single character, hence the ...Hi Rosie,
I believe the "?" character represents a single character, hence the line that reads
I have made the changes to this page. Thank you for pointing that out.
Cheers,
Azwandi
Jul 04, 2008
Andreas Ringdal says:
Is it possible to run a pure date search. I want to list all modified doc...Is it possible to run a pure date search.
I want to list all modified documents within the last week.
Andreas
Jul 07, 2008
Ming Giet Chong says:
Hi Andreas, Currently, Confluence doesn't supported this feature. However, ther...Hi Andreas,
Currently, Confluence doesn't supported this feature. However, there are few similar feature requests being raised at:
Please cast your vote and add yourself as a watcher for future updates to the reported request. Thanks.
Regards,
MG
Aug 02, 2008
Anonymous says:
Search by "user" or "author" How do I search by "user" or "author" Can't find i...Search by "user" or "author"
How do I search by "user" or "author"
Can't find it. I would like to know who authored what quickly.
Please let me know by emailing to gchutrau@gmail.com
Thank you
Aug 04, 2008
Azwandi Mohd Aris [Atlassian] says:
Hi there, There is an improvement request at CONF-2328 to cater this requiremen...Hi there,
There is an improvement request at CONF-2328 to cater this requirement. Please note that this has been implemented in Confluence version 2.9, which is scheduled to be released in the near future. Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Azwandi
Aug 13, 2008
James Kulbach says:
I have a user who has created pages with user defined fields with label in one f...I have a user who has created pages with user defined fields with label in one field, and the value in the next field, e.g. Colour and Size.
We're trying to figure out how to do a search to return Colour = Blue and Size = Large.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Aug 18, 2008
Tony Cheah Tong Nyee says:
Hi James, Confluence data is stored in fields which can be specified in the sea...Hi James,
Confluence data is stored in fields which can be specified in the search. To search a specific field, type the name of the field followed by a colon ':' and then the term you are looking for.For instance, if you are searching for the label with Blank and label with Green, you can try this :
For more information about Confluence search Fields, please see:
Regards,
Tony
Aug 22, 2008
Hamish Willee says:
Hi How do I search against a date? Specifically I'm trying to do this in an ad...Hi
How do I search against a date?
Specifically I'm trying to do this in an advanced search field, but can't work it out on standard search either
What I want to do is created date > something
ie created: >"29 Jul 2008"
Regards
H
Aug 28, 2008
Ming Giet Chong says:
Hi Hamish, This feature is not supported in Confluence currently. However, ther...Hi Hamish,
This feature is not supported in Confluence currently. However, there is a similar feature request being raised at:
Please cast your vote and add yourself as a watcher for future updates to the reported request. Thanks.
Regards,
MG
Nov 26, 2008
Anonymous says:
Hi , Is it possible to search pages for lastest modifiedHi ,
Is it possible to search pages for lastest modified
Nov 26, 2008
Shaji Khan says:
Try this: (recently-updated:spaces=YOUR SPACE NAME|types=page,comment|...Try this:
(recently-updated:spaces=YOUR SPACE NAME|types=page,comment|width=100%) Substitute the brackets with flower brackets.
Its not necessarily a search, but it elegently displays recently updates pages at one convenient location.
Dec 18, 2008
Anonymous says:
Hi, working in software, and many of the docs relating directly to code, we oft...Hi,
working in software, and many of the docs relating directly to code, we often want to search exact strings with underscores (funct names, macros, defines, enums etc).
But it appears Confluence uses the underscore to split words up, so the search "ERR_CONDITION_REGISTER" is searched as "ERR or CONDITION or REGISTER".
Is there a way to make it search without fragmenting on the underscore?
Nick...
Jan 02, 2009
Arie Murdianto says:
Hi, This behavior is actually controlled by lucene analyzer that is used by Con...Hi,
This behavior is actually controlled by lucene analyzer that is used by Confluence. You need to customize Confluence core code to do this as this is a default behavior of the search engine.
Cheers,
Jan 07, 2009
Anonymous says:
Hello, how do I search in the wiki markup source. I deleted a flash player and ...Hello,
how do I search in the wiki markup source. I deleted a flash player and now I want to search for all wikis/pages which contain a link to the player flvplayer.swf to find all broken links.
Kind regards, Marc
Jan 07, 2009
Giles Gaskell [Atlassian Technical Writer] says:
Hi Marc, Thanks for your query. Confluence's search functions actually search t...Hi Marc,
Thanks for your query. Confluence's search functions actually search the wiki markup source itself. Hence, if you conducted a search for flvplayer.swf, all pages containing that string should appear in your search results.
Bear in mind that search results only present text content, so your search term flvplayer.swf would not be shown in these results. Hope this information helps.
Kind regards,
Giles Gaskell
Technical Writer
ggaskell@atlassian.com
ATLASSIAN - http://www.atlassian.com
Feb 04, 2009
Ken Ho says:
In a Feb 04, 2008 comment, Roy Hartono noted that for search, underscore between...In a Feb 04, 2008 comment, Roy Hartono noted that for search, underscore between words in a group works the same as quotations around the group of words (searching for a_b works same as "a b"). Is there any way to search for underscore_separated without returning pages that just have underscore and/or separated standing on their own?
Feb 17, 2009
Komathi Krishnan [Atlassian] says:
Hi Ken Ho, Unfortunately Confluence does not have that type of searching becaus...Hi Ken Ho,
Unfortunately Confluence does not have that type of searching because Confluence Indexing service(Lucene) does not support this feature. If you are keen to have this feature, feel free to raise an improvement request at http://jira.atlassian.com. Vote for it and add yourself as a watcher.
Cheers,
Komathi
Feb 17, 2009
Ken Ho says:
Thanks for your response. I created the issue http://jira.atlassian.com/br...Thanks for your response. I created the issue http://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONF-14554 but fyi, one is apparently not allowed to vote for an issue that one reported.
Dec 17
Fred Bunting says:
I've added my vote to this ticket as well. (And to http://jira.atlassian.com/bro...I've added my vote to this ticket as well. (And to http://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONF-3036, which also includes the same problem, and has been rated Major for quite a long time now).
Anybody in any software-related industry needs to be able to search for tokens with underscores.
Mar 26, 2009
Anonymous says:
I have a page with a title of "the quick brown fox" and the page has a label of ...I have a page with a title of "the quick brown fox" and the page has a label of "jumped". If I search for 'quick' the page is returned and if I search for 'jumped' the page is returned - so I know it's picking up the title field and label field. If I specify by typing: labelText:jumped quick, then the page is returned.
When I type 'brown jumped' in the search box, my page is not returned. How can I expect the audience of our wiki to know whether a keyword will be a label or not? Is there anyway I can change this behaviour?
Thanks!
Mar 30, 2009
Arie Murdianto says:
If you type "brown jumped" (with double quotes), Confluence expects that there a...If you type "brown jumped" (with double quotes), Confluence expects that there are 2 words sequentially in either your content or your title of the page. Thus, if you want to get Confluence returns the page, you dont need to specify double quotes in the search field.
Cheers,
Apr 06, 2009
Anonymous says:
Sorry Arie, my mistake in explaining. I did not type double quotes, just entered...Sorry Arie, my mistake in explaining. I did not type double quotes, just entered the terms.
Louisa
Jul 31, 2009
Anonymous says:
Hello. I was wondering whether there is any way to exclude the searching of mar...Hello.
I was wondering whether there is any way to exclude the searching of markup? For example if a user were interesting in searching for "panel" for the purposes of finding mentions of topics like "panel discussion," "window panel" etc, currently their search result would include every page that uses {panel} in the markup.
I'd like to suggest that default searches should only search on visible content. If the average user searches a wiki for the word "color" it looks like the search function is broken when almost every page in the wiki is returned as a result, yet none of them have the word "color" on the page. It isn't generally an expected behavior for a search engine to return results where the matches are invisible to the searcher.
An option to perform markup searching for a given search would still be desirable, of course.
Thanks,
Kellie
Sep 09
Ken Roland says:
We are having a hard time with search. Trying to search for "GUID" always return...We are having a hard time with search. Trying to search for "GUID" always returns results containing "guide" and no results containing GUID. I tried: GUID not guide, and "guid " but it always returns Guide results. It also has the recommendation "Did you mean Guide" which if you click on returns no results, even though it returned 277 results for guid all of which have Guide in them ...
It seems very broken. If you search for CDS you will get all the CD results because it thinks you just pluralized CD. Is there some quoting method that will give you EXACT results?
yesterday at 13:56:49
Ken Roland says:
We've upgraded to the latest version and the search is still broken. "GUID" -&...We've upgraded to the latest version and the search is still broken.
Here's the best one. I create a page that has the term GUID on it and not guide and filter the results based only on pages I created.
Sep 21
Anonymous says:
In 3.0.1, searching for whatever, and with Who: [adam to ben] produces a...In 3.0.1, searching for whatever, and with Who: [adam to ben] produces a stack trace.
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