When using text field filters in the reporting mechanism, there are terms and characters that can be used to refine your filter.
Report Text Fields are those where you can write in Custom Text.
If you insert simple text (or a number) into one of the text filter fields, it will simply search for text/number which exactly matches that value.
Characters Which Can Be Used For Numbers/Integers
If using numbers only in the text field, you can use few special selectors;
- > (Greater than) returns all records which are greater than the value of the number in question.
- < (Less than) returns all records which are less than the value of the number in question.
- between and finds all records which fit from the upper and lower limits of the selection,
- e.g. between 2 and 15 finds records where the selected field value is from 2 to 15.
- != (not equal) excludes the exact number that is included,
- e.g. != 3 filters out records with the number 3 as the selected field value.
If Using Text and/or Numbers in Report Fields
Wildcards ( * )
- Use the wildcard character to replace possible characters,
- e.g. *the* would find words such as other, there, the, mother etc.,
- t*ne would find words like tone, thine, tune etc.
Like, Not LIke
- Use the like selector to find words or characters similar to the word used.
- e.g. like Pete would also find words like pete, peter, Peter etc (good for ensuring that capitals do not rule out some records).
- Use the not like selector to exclude records.
- The example above if used with the not like selector would find records that did not contain those words.
Word or Number String
- Separate out values with commas to find all the field values which match one of the values in the string,
- e.g. 5,sam,apple,213,Bow,xyz will filter on all records which match one of the six selectors.
- Some of the selectors above can fill the same purpose:
- e.g. between 2 and 6 would return exactly the same result as 2,3,4,5,6,
- like bill would be the same as bill,Bill, BILL,biLL.
Important Points to Note
- Please be aware that an empty field is NOT the same as the number zero (0) - they are considered different values.
- When using the wildcard characters at the start and end of a text string, it will return any text that has that portion of text contained somewhere in it,
- e.g. If filtering on *the* in the notes field, it will return records with sentences that include the word the.
- When using the < (less than) character it will return all numbers less than the number used, plus all empty fields,
- use the between 0 and 10 terms to find records which do not contain empty fields,
- using the < (less than) and > (greater than) selectors with text and not a number could produce unexpected results.
