Search for specific values in your data in Insights
When filtering your visual data or using list or dropdown controls in a dashboard, you can quickly search for values that interest you.
You can search for specific values or all values that contain a specific search query. For example, searching for al in a list of U.S. states returns Alabama, Alaska, and California.
You can also use wildcards to search for all values that match a specific character pattern. For example, you can search for all U.S. states that end with the letters ia and narrow the results down to California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Prerequisites
- You have the Insights Reader or the Insights Author permission.
Page location
Insights > Dashboards or Analyses > Click a dashboard or analysis
Procedures
Search for values in a filter or control
Use wildcard search
In the query that you enter in the search bar, you can use the following wildcard characters to find values in Insights filters and the controls for lists and dropdowns.
- * - Use an asterisk symbol to search for values that match zero to many characters in a specific position.
- ? - Use a question mark to match a single character in a specific position.
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\ - Use a backslash to escape the *, ?, or \ wildcard characters and search for them in your query.
EXAMPLE You can search for phrases that end with a question mark.
Following are examples of how supported wildcard characters can be used in an Insights search query.
al
- This query searches for all values withal
and returns Alabama, Alaska, and California.al*
- This query searches for all values that begin withal
and end with zero to multiple characters. It returns Alabama, and Alaska in a list of U.S. states.*ia
- This query searches for all values that begin with zero to multiple characters and end with lettersia
. It returns California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.*al*
- This query searches for all values with zero to multiple characters before and after the lettersal
. It returns Alabama, Alaska, and California.a?a?a?a
- This query searches for all values with a single character in the exact positions between thea
letters. It returns Alabama.a?a*a
- This query searches for all values with a single character between the first twoa
letters and multiple characters between the second twoa
letters. It returns Alabama and Alaska.How*\?
- This query searches for values that begin withHow
, followed by zero to multiple characters, and end with a question mark. The backslash (\) in this query tells Insights to search for question marks in each value, rather than use the question mark symbol as a wildcard character. This query returns the questions, How are you? and, How is this possible?\**
- This query searches for values that begin with an asterisk and are followed by zero to multiple characters. The backslash (\) in this query tells Insights to search for an actual asterisk in the values, rather than use the asterisk symbol as a wildcard character. This query returns values such as *all, *above, and *below.\\*
- This query searches for values with a backslash, followed by zero to multiple characters. The first backslash (\) in this query tells Insights to search for the second backslash (\) in each value, rather than use the backslash symbol as a wildcard character. This query returns results such as \Home.???
- This query searches for values that contain three characters. It returns values such as ant, bug, and car.
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