Search on text fields

Learn how to find records by searching on text fields in Advanced Search.

Search on a specific text field with the Search Fields method

Some text fields are listed in the Search Fields list in Advanced Search. This includes Name/Title, Brief Description, and Credit Line. For more information on selecting fields to search on, see Search on fields with the Search Fields method.

However, Vernon doesn't index every text field because it can slow down the system when saving records. This means that some fields are not listed in the Search Fields list.

Search on all text fields with the Search Fields method

If you want to search all text fields and not just the ones listed in the Search Fields list, select All Text.

For example, if you search on All Text for the word mother, the system will locate objects where the word mother appears. This could include:

  • Name/Title field (for example, Whistler's Mother, Mother of Pearl Fruit Knife).

  • Brief Description field (for example, Colour photograph of a mother and her children).

  • Curator's Comments field (for example, Previously thought to depict the artist's mother).

Search on a specific text field with a Select Statement

Another way to search on a text field that isn't indexed is to use a Select Statement. This is an alternative to searching on All Text as you can search on a specific field. For more information, see Search using a Select Statement.

Search for a phrase in a text field

The search indexes contain only the individual words entered into a field, not the order in which they are entered. That is, the indexes don't contain sentences.

This means that if you try to search for a phrase in a text field from the Search Fields list, the results will include records that contain any word in the phrase.

For example, a search for Queen Street on the Brief Description field will return records that contain:

  • The word queen.

  • The word street.

  • The phrase Queen Street.

To find an exact phrase in a text field, you'll need to Search using a Select Statement and put the phrase in quotation marks.

Examples

  • SELECT OBJECT WITH BRIEF_DESC CONTAINING "QUEEN STREET"

  • SELECT OBJECT WITH COPYRIGHT_NOTES CONTAINING "Meadow Bank Ltd"

Browse all words in a text field's index

You can browse all the words entered in text fields with Advanced Search. For more information, see Browse all the terms in a field's search index.