Using Compound Phrases

Many of the examples in this chapter use a single phrase when describing a search term. However it is possible to add multiple phrases to a single term. For example, you might want to search for a city like “New York” or you might want to search for multiple words that you remember from the marker data of an asset. In these cases, you must understand how the search engine treats these compound phrases to ensure that you obtain the desired results.

The following table provides a comparison of how a search term with compound phrase is analyzed verses a search with multiple separate search terms.

Search Type	Value	Expected Results
One search term: Any		Searches all metadata fields for New York. Both words must exist within a single field metadata field, but they are not required to be found in that order, or even next to each other.
One search term: Metadata: Name		Searches for instances of New York in the title (Name) field. Both words must exist within the Name metadata field, but they are not required to be found in that order, or even next to each other. In this case the Search app connects the two terms with an implicit AND operator.
Two search terms: Any and Any		Terms New and York must both exist in the asset metadata, but the terms can exist in different fields.
Two search terms: Any or Any		Either New or York must exist in the asset metadata. The terms can exist in different fields. Any asset with either term is returned, but sorting by relevance returns assets with both at the top of the search results.
Two search terms: One with an exact match		This search would return any asset that includes an exact match for the phrase “New York”, as well as the individual terms: Big and Apple. All phrases must be found in some metadata field for the asset.
One search term: Any: Exact match		Searches all metadata fields for “New York”. The phrase must exist within a single field metadata field. When you execute an exact match search that includes a special character (e.g. “New_York”), the Search app uses two different analyzers to complete the search: Raw and Default. The Raw analyzer looks for the term with the special character included. If the term is found and it is the only value in that metadata field, the match is boosted to the top of the search results. However, if the value is found in the middle of a metadata field, the search algorithm still returns the asset, but it cannot boost it to the top of the results. An example might be an asset whose name is: “Vacation in New_York”. Following the Raw analyzer, the search conducts a secondary pass using the Default analyzer. This search remaps non-alphanumeric characters to spaces — returning all assets that match “New York”. For more information on special characters, see Search Word Breaks.
One search term: Any: Exact match with additional terms		Combining an exact match phrase with additional terms is not supported. If you combine an exact match search with additional terms, the results might include New York, or Big, or Apple from any metadata field.
Not Supported		Avid does not recommend or support the use of an operator between terms within the same pill. If you want to join two terms, use two pills or quotes as detailed above. Taxonomies represent an exception to this rule. For more information, see Using Taxonomies below.