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Porter Word Stemming - Searching for part of a word does not return expected results - Support and Troubleshooting
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KB0687540

Porter Word Stemming - Searching for part of a word does not return expected results


3649 Views Last updated : Oct 25, 2023 public Copy Permalink
KB Summary by Now Assist

Issue

When doing a Keyword, Global, or 'for text' search for part of a word, the expected results may not get fully returned. For example when searching for 'serv', partial of 'server', the search does not return all results as it would for 'server'.

Cause

This is the expected behavior of the platform, as the text search engine only uses complete indexed words or word stems. The third-party (Porter) adopted word-stemming procedure does not equalize to word truncation, such as to expect returning results implying a wildcard.

Resolution

In order to search successfully with a partial word, make sure to add a wildcard such as * or %, correctly placed within the search term string. Plural words do not need a wildcard instead, the word 'server' has the same stem as for 'servers', so both results will be returned anyway.

Example:

If you are trying to get results for 'server', and using the word 'serv', your search string would need to be 'serv*' in order to retrieve the right results.

Related Links

Wildcard characters allow searching for patterns and variations


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