Content Component 25.3
Content Component Help

# Index Nonalphanumeric Characters for Retrieval

To ensure that a nonalphanumeric character is available for querying, specify it in the TangibleCharacters configuration parameter.

For example, the following table describes the query matching for when `TangibleCharacters=?!`.

Indexed string | Query terms matched
--- | ---
`help!` | help! Queries do not match documents that contain the same word without the exclamation mark.

NOTE: You cannot specify spaces, returns, and tabs as TangibleCharacters.

To ensure that Content indexes numbers with decimals or commas together as a single term for querying, specify both characters in the NumberPunctuation configuration parameter.

Content treats characters that you set as NumberPunctuation as TangibleCharacters when they occur in terms with a number on both sides.

For example, the following table describes the query matching for when `NumberPunctuation=.,`.

Indexed string | Query terms matched
--- | ---
`815,290.50` | 815,290.50
`73.8A` | 73.8A
`738.` | 738 (number punctuation does not apply.

NOTE: These results can vary depending on your `IndexNumbers` configuration parameter setting.

When you configure a character in NumberPunctuation and another tokenization parameter, such as HyphenChars, TangibleCharacters, or AugmentSeparators, Content processes the parameters in order of precedence. For example, TangibleCharacters takes priority over NumberPunctuation, so if you configure the period in both parameters, you get the same results as if you only configured it in TangibleCharacters.

For more information about the order in which Content applies different tokenization configurations, refer to Knowledge Discovery Expert.

When a configured NumberPunctuation character occurs in a value where it does not have a number on each side, the processing depends only on your other configuration. For example, the following table describes query matching for the value `25.R` in various configurations. This value does not activate NumberPunctuation, because there is a number on only one side of the period.

If the period (.) is configured as | Query terms matched
--- | ---
non-separator (default) | 25R
HyphenChars | 25, R, and 25R
TangibleCharacters | 25.R
AugmentSeparators | 25 and R.

Related Topics

- Configure the Number Index Process

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Version 25.3 | Last updated July 2025

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Product: Knowledge Discovery Content Component 25.3

Topic Title: Index Nonalphanumeric Characters for Retrieval