Search function

[Guest]

The search function in Access is very basic and will not provide results
unless an exact match is found. Does there exist an add-in with better
capabilities?

 

[Rick Brandt]

The search function in Access is very basic and will not provide
results unless an exact match is found. Does there exist an add-in
with better capabilities?

Which search function are you referring to? The built in "Find" feature
does let you search for partial matches. Just change the "Match" setting
from "Whole Field" to "Any Part of Field".

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

What are you trying to search? With queries, you can use Like and
wild-cards. It's also possible to use Regular Expressions, although you need
to write some code to make that happen. (see, for example, John Nurick's
rgxValidate function at http://www.mvps.org/access/modules/mdl0063.htm at
"The Access Web")

 

[Guest]

Yes, "Find" is the function I am referring to. While it is possible to look
for a partial match, that is still very limiting. If you are looking for
"car" and the record contains "auto" the only exact match is the letter "a"
which is not very useful. Even if I know the field that contains "auto" I am
in dire straits to find the correct record. What I desire is an intelligent
version of "Find". Although I am a programmer, it seems like a daunting task
to develop anything remotely capable from scratch. With all of the search
engines on the internet I was wondering if any of this capability had found
its way into Access.