Enhanced search queries in the Locate pane

Enhanced search is a search mode that is not case sensitive, available in the Locate pane on the Layer Search tab that can be accessed from the Options button Options. The search mode allows you to search for whole words or phrases in the attributes of a layer. It also allows for spelling mistakes using the Enable fuzzy matching check box and has a built-in query language for searching layers.

Query language

Enhanced search allows you to build advanced queries. Many keywords, wildcards, and Booleans are built in to allow the most control over your search queries. See the table below for how to use the built-in query language. To use the special characters, type them in the search box in the Locate pane.

Query language examples

Find all features withUse this syntaxType this

The word park

park

Both words park and lake

Space or AND

park lake

park and lake

Either river or lake

OR

river or lake

Cities that start with San but without Diego

- (minus) or NOT

San -Diego

San not Diego

The phrase fire hydrant

" " (double-quotes)

"fire hydrant"

The word IS in uppercase only (not is or Is)

= (equal sign)

=IS

Either spelling of the country of Brazil using a wildcard (Brasil or Brazil)

? (question mark) Wildcard for any one character, including a space

Bra?il

Variations on Megan using a wildcard (Megan, Meghan, Megyn)

* (asterisk) Wildcard for zero or more characters, not including a space

Meg*n

Variations on part time using a wildcard (parttime, part time, part-time)

** (two asterisks) Wildcard for zero or more characters, including a space

part**time

Locate pane examples

Below are examples of using the built-in query language of the Enhanced search mode of Layer Search in the Locate pane.

Enhanced search with simple search string

To find all features with a specific attribute, type the attribute you are looking for in the search box in the Locate pane. For example, the following search text returns the county features whose name is Orange regardless of how the value is stored:

orange

Enhanced layer search with simple search string in the Locate pane

Enhanced search using the AND operator or a space

To find features with multiple attributes, use either a space or the AND operator in the search text typed in the search box of the Locate pane. For example, the following search text returns all parks in a city’s athletic fields layer that have both soccer fields and turf surfaces:

  • soccer turf
  • soccer AND turf

Enhanced layer search with the AND operator in the Locate pane

Enhanced search using the OR operator

Use the OR operator in the search text typed in the search box of the Locate pane to find features that have either or both feature attributes. For example, the following search text returns all baseball venues with either park or stadium in the venue name:

park OR stadium

Enhanced layer search with the OR operator in the Locate pane

Enhanced search to exclude words with the NOT operator or minus sign

To find features that do not include certain values, use either the minus sign (-) or the NOT operator in the search text typed in the search box of the Locate pane. For example, the following search text returns all cities that start with San but do not include Diego:

  • San -Diego
  • San not Diego
Enhanced layer search with the NOT operator or minus sign in the Locate pane

Enhanced search using double quotes

Use double quotes (" ") in the search text typed in the search box of the Locate pane to find features that contain a specific phrase. For example, the following search text returns vegetation areas near the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District that contain plants with Wedge-leaf as part of the vegetation type class. The results are returned from the MAPCLASS field and displayed with 10 characters on either side of the matched search text:

"Wedge-leaf"

Enhanced layer search with double quotes in the Locate pane

Enhanced search using the equal sign

Use the equal sign (=) in the search text typed in the search box of the Locate pane to search for features that contain attributes in a specific string case. For example, the following search text returns points of interest features where the Subcategory value for ATM is only uppercase and not lowercase. If = is not used in the search text, both upper and lowercase search text are returned:

=ATM

Comparison between using equals and not using equals in Enhanced layer search in the Locate pane

Enhanced search with the question mark wildcard

The question mark (?) is used as a wildcard for any one character, including a space, when entering text in the search box of the Locate pane to find features. For example, this search text returns features that have either the English or Portuguese spelling of Brazil:

Bra?il

Enhanced layer search with the question mark in the Locate pane

Enhanced search using the single asterisk wildcard

A single asterisk (*) is used as a wildcard for zero or more characters, not including a space, when entering text in the search box of the Locate pane to find features. For example, this search text returns all features in an Austrian castles layer that includes attributes with variations of ßs in any of the fields:

ßs

Enhanced layer search with a single asterisk in the Locate pane

Enhanced search using the double asterisk wildcard

Two asterisks (**) are used as a wildcard for zero or more characters, including a space, when entering text in the search box of the Locate pane to find features. For example, this search text returns all highway features for Interstate 75 that contain different variations for the full highway name:

I**75

Enhanced layer search with double asterisk in the Locate pane