Using AND, OR, and NOT Operators in Search

SOLIDWORKS PDM supports AND, OR, and NOT operators in input search criteria in edit-box type fields on search cards.

You can use these search operators in any search card, Web2 search, the SOLIDWORKS PDM Search tool, and quick search.

Rules:

• Search strings are case-insensitive.
• Operators are case-sensitive and must be capitalized.
• For variable values, the valid operators are: =, !=, <, <=, >, >=, and <>.
• Rules for using escape symbol:

  Search for String with	Input String
  Double quotation marks	String with an escape symbol \. For example, to search for "speaker", enter the string as \"speaker\"
  Double quotation marks that are a part of an explicit search	String with an escape symbol \. For example, to search for 3" pipe, enter the string as "3\" pipe". The use of the escape symbol \ is optional in cases where you use a double quotation mark " as an inch constant. For example, to search for 3", you may enter the string as 3".

• In case of multiple operators used in a search, SOLIDWORKS PDM evaluates the search operators in this order: (), NOT, AND, and OR.
• You can use AND, OR, and NOT search operators or their equivalent symbols&, |, ! respectively.
• You can search for TEXT, INT, FLOAT, and DATE type data.

  If you do not specify the data type explicitly and the multi-variable field has:

  • TEXT and non-TEXT variables, the applied data type is TEXT.
  • DATE and non-DATE variables, the applied data type is TEXT.
  • FLOAT and INT variables, the applied data type is FLOAT.
• You can use the AND and OR operators with or without the :. For example, for AND operator, use AND, AND:.

• Use the single colon specifier, :, when you want to search for values across multiple configurations or variables.

  For example, when you enter the input string as:

  • :part1 part2 part3 part4, SOLIDWORKS PDM returns the matches that may be present in different configurations.
  • :!part1, SOLIDWORKS PDM returns the matches that do not have part1 in any of the configurations.
• Along with :, you can nest search strings within {}.

  For example, for the input string :{part1 part2} part3, SOLIDWORKS PDM returns only those matches where part1 part2 are found in the same configuration.

• The search field supports * and ? as wildcard characters.
• You can use = to search for an exact string. For example, to search for a Tools string, enter the search string as =Tools.
• If a string contains more than one word, you can use "" to search for the exact string. For example, to search for pipe tools, enter "pipe tools".