Indexing

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)`

An ideal query runs against indexed columns. Querying against indexed columns increases the speed at which Service Manager can receive data. However, adding too many indexes adds a performance cost to inserting (adding) new records as well as updating or deleting existing ones. Indexes also require additional storage space.

Your database administrator will weigh the potential benefit of indexing your queries against the cost of increased write times (insertions and updates). Typically, your database administrator may want to index any query that many people access or that gets run frequently. You may want to index tables that are part of the following Service Manager frequently-used queries:

Public favorites

Commonly-used forms containing Format controls

Fills

Drop-downs (combo boxes)

Global lists

Background processes

Related concepts