Search for	Example	Results
A single word	`cat`	Topics that contain the word "cat". You will also find its grammatical variations, such as "cats".
A phrase. You can specify that the search results contain a specific phrase.	`"cat food"` (quotation marks)	Topics that contain the literal phrase "cat food" and all its grammatical variations. Without the quotation marks, the query is equivalent to specifying an OR operator, which finds topics with one of the individual words instead of the phrase.

Search for	Operator	Example
Two or more words in the same topic	`AND` `and` `+` (plus symbol) `&` (ampersand)	`cat AND dog` `"cat food"+milk` `"cat food"&"dog food"`
Either word in a topic	`OR` `or` `\|` (pipe)	`cat OR dog` `cat \| dog`
Topics that do not contain a specific word or phrase	`NOT` `not` `!` (exclamation point)	`NOT cat` `! dog`
Topics that contain one string and do not contain another	`^` (caret)	`cat ^ mouse`
A combination of search types	`( )` parentheses	`cat + (dog \| mouse)` `cat \| dog + (! mouse)`

Service Manager9.51

Administer > System configuration parameters > Database parameters > wildcardcharacters

Parameter: wildcardcharacters

Startup parameters change the behavior of the HPE Service Manager server. You can always set a startup parameter from the server's operating system command prompt.

Parameter

wildcardcharacters

Description

This parameter defines the wildcard characters you want the HPE Service Manager server to use during searches.

Valid if set from

Server's operating system command prompt

Initialization (sm.ini) file

Requires restart of the Service Manager server?

Default value

*?\

where * defines the place holder for any 0 to N characters

where ? defines the place holder for any one character

where \ defines the escape character to search literally for any of the wildcard characters

Possible values

These characters are only used in queries using the LIKE operator. For example: "*al?n*" matches "alen"

These characters are not used when using the = or # operator. For example:

name="*al?n*" would only match "*al?n*"
name#"*al?n*" would match "*al?n*" and "*al?n*e" [starts with]

Note When HPE Service Manager generates a query from what is typed on the search screen, the data is scanned for these characters and if found, a LIKE operator is generated automatically instead of the default "starts with" (#) operator.

Some wildcard character search examples are listed below:

Wildcard character "*" to search for any number of characters. For example: "*ev*" would match "kevin" but not "kendel"
Wildcard character "?" to search for a single character. For example, "l?n" would match "alen" and "alan" but not "alain"
Wildcard character "\" to search for text containing special or wildcard characters. For example: "Help\?" would match "Help?" but not "Help!"

Example usage

Command line: sm -listener -wildcardcharacters:%?/

Initialization file: wildcardcharacters:%?/

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