Knowledge Discovery 25.4
Getting Started Guide

# Search Parameters

This section describes many of the most important parameters for the `Query` action that you can use to restrict the document result set.

For more information about each of these parameters, refer to the Content component Help.

## Text

The `Text` parameter defines restrictions on the content of matching documents. You can specify restrictions in plain text, or by using Boolean and proximity operators.

If `Text` contains plain text, for example airplane leases, the Content component treats the query as a conceptual query. It tokenizes the query text, removes stop words, and stems the remaining tokens to produce a collection of terms.

NOTE: These functions are language-specific. For more information about language configuration in Knowledge Discovery, refer to the Content component Help, and Knowledge Discovery Expert.

The Content component finds documents that contains these terms, and uses statistical algorithms to quantify the relevance of the match to the original query. It assigns a relevancy score to each result document. By default, Content also uses this relevancy score to sort the results of the query.

For example:

    action=query&text=the airplane leases

The Content component tokenizes this query text into the, airplane, and leases. The term the is a stop word, so Content ignores it. It stems the other two terms to produce the terms airplan and leas. Stemming allows Content to match documents that contain alternate forms of the words airplane and leases (for example, lease, leasing, and leased also stem to leas).

If `Text` contains Boolean or proximity operators, such as `AND`, or `OR`, Content treats the query as a Boolean query. As with conceptual queries, Content stems the search terms and ignores stop words, but documents match the query only if they satisfy the Boolean or proximity expression.

## FieldText

The `FieldText` parameter defines restrictions on the fields of documents that match the query. `FieldText` restrictions have the following format:

    FIELDOPERATOR{Value1[,Value2,...]}:FieldName1[:FieldName2:...]

where,

`FIELDOPERATOR` | is the type of comparison or test to perform on the value of the specified fields, against the specified values.
`Value1[,Value2,...]` | is a comma-separated list of field values.
`FieldName1[:FieldName2:...]` | is a colon-separated list of field names.

There are more than 40 different field operators. The following examples demonstrate the `FieldText` restriction format and some of the most common field operators. For a full list of field operators, refer to the Content component Help. For more information about fields and optimizations for the `FieldText` queries, see Configure Fields.

NOTE: By default, `FieldText` matches are not case sensitive. For more information about case sensitive search, refer to Knowledge Discovery Expert.

The following `FieldText` restriction matches documents whose `DOCUMENT_TYPE` field contains the value record:

    FieldText=MATCH{record}:DOCUMENT_TYPE

The following `FieldText` restriction matches documents whose `FILETYPE` field contains one of the values pdf, doc, or txt:

    FieldText=MATCH{pdf,doc,txt}:FILETYPE

The following `FieldText` restriction matches documents whose `DIR` or `DIRECTORY` field exactly matches one of docs, archive, or work:

    FieldText=MATCH{docs,archive,work}:DIR:DIRECTORY

You can combine `FieldText` restrictions by using Boolean operators, such as `AND`, `OR`, and `NOT`, and group the restrictions by using parentheses. For example:

    FieldText=MATCH{dog}:ANIMAL+AND+(MATCH{celery}:VEGETABLE+OR+NOT+MATCH{quartz}:MINERAL)

The Content component also includes field operators for numerical comparison. The following `FieldText` restriction matches documents for which `SCORE1` is greater than `.95` and `SCORE2` is less than `.85`:

    FieldText=GREATER{.95}:SCORE1+AND+LESS{.85}:SCORE2

The following `FieldText` restriction matches documents that have a `COUNT` field, regardless of its value:

    FieldText=EXISTS{}:COUNT

The following `FieldText` restriction matches documents whose `BRAND` field contains tech as a substring:

    FieldText=STRING{tech}:BRAND

The following `FieldText` restriction matches documents whose `EMOTION` field contains a string that has the same stem as the word loving.

    FieldText=TERM{loving}:EMOTION

For example, if the `EMOTION` field has any of the values love, loving, loves, or lover, the document matches.

The following `FieldText` restriction matches documents whose position (stored in the `LAT` and `LONG` fields) is within a distance of 5 kilometers from the point with latitude 52.2°N and longitude 0.12° E.

    FieldText=DISTSPHERICAL{52.2,0.12,5}:LAT:LONG

The following `FieldText` restriction matches documents whose `DUE_DATE` is before the current time.

    FieldText=LTNOW{}:DUE_DATE

## Combine

The `Combine` parameter contains instructions on how to treat certain groups of documents as a single result for the `Query` action.

The most important value for `Combine` is `Simple`. By default, when you index long documents, the Content component splits the documents into shorter sections. When Content processes a query, it can return each of these sections as a separate search result. If you set `Combine` to `Simple`, Content returns only the best matching section from each document.

It is a best practice to set `Combine` to `Simple` in every Content `Query` unless there is a specific reason not to.

## DatabaseMatch

Every document in the Content component belongs to exactly one database. The `DatabaseMatch` parameter specifies a comma-separated list of databases that resulting documents can come from.

By default (if `DatabaseMatch` is missing or empty), Content retrieves results from any database. Content applies database restrictions early in the query process, and these restrictions are generally quick, so using a `DatabaseMatch` can improve the performance of your query.

It is a best practice to set `DatabaseMatch` in every Content `Query` to be as restrictive as possible.

NOTE: A DatabaseMatch restriction is equivalent to the following `FieldText` operation:

`MATCH{DatabaseNames}:autn_database`

## Start and MaxResults

Together, `Start` and `MaxResults` control the paging of query results.

`MaxResults` indicates the total maximum number of results to retrieve from the index. By default, the Content component returns the results in order of the relevance score, which indicates how well the document matches the query. You can change the order of the results by setting the `Sort` parameter (see Sort). Content returns the top results according to your sort, up to the value of `MaxResults`.

`Start` indicates the first result to return from the set. This option allows you to return results in pages. For example, the following query returns up to 50 results. If there are more than 50 results, it returns the best 50.

    action=Query&Text=bananas&MaxResults=50

For the following query, Content finds the best 50 results that match the query, and then returns these results from the eleventh best onwards. The response therefore contains 40 results (results 11 to 50).

    action=Query&Text=bananas&MaxResults=50&Start=11

## MinScore

The `Minscore` parameter specifies the smallest relevancy score that a document must have to the query for the Content component to return it as a result. For example:

    action=Query&Text=aircraft&MinScore=60

If this query has 10 matching documents, with scores of 100, 90, 80, 70, and so on down to 10, the query returns five results (the documents with relevancy scores of 100, 90, 80, 70, and 60).

## StoreState, StateMatchID, and StateDontMatchID

The `StoreState` parameter allows you to save an Content component search. When you set `StoreState` to `True`, Content returns an alphanumeric token with the query. This token is a reference to the original set of search results.

You can set this token as the value of the `StateMatchID` parameter to restrict the results of a query to only those in the original stored search. In this way, you can use `StoreState` and `StateMatchID` together to implement 'search within a search' functionality.

The `StateDontMatchID` parameter is the opposite of `StateMatchID`. When you set `StateDontMatchID` to the value of a stored state token , the query excludes any result that was a result in the original search. Effectively, `StoreState` and `StateDontMatchID` implement 'search outside a search' functionality.

## UserMetaFields

The `UserMetaFields` parameter allows you to combine the field values in result documents into a new field (a metafield) dynamically at query time. This method allows you to create on-the-fly analytics for your documents. The format of `UserMetaFields` is:

    UserMetaFields=OPERATION{UserFieldName}:DocumentFieldName

The following examples demonstrate both the `UserMetaFields` format, and some of the existing operators. For a full list of operators, refer to the Content component Help.

In the following example, the `TOTAL` metafield for a matching document is the sum of all the `PRICE` fields in that document:

    UserMetaFields=ADD{TOTAL}:PRICE

You can create multiple metafields with one UserMetaFields parameter. In the following example, the `TOTALCOST` metafield for a matching document contains the sum of all its `COST` fields, and the `AVGREVENUE` field contains the average (mean) of the `REVENUE` fields:

    UserMetaFields=ADD{TOTALCOST}:COST+MEAN{AVGREVENUE}:REVENUE

You can use metafields in the `Sort` and `FieldText` parameters of the `Query` where you create them. In the following example, the Content component creates a `MAXPRICE` metafield for each document that matches the initial query stages, which is the maximum of the `PRICE` fields in the document. The query returns only documents for which the `MAXPRICE` metafield is greater than `500`.

    UserMetaFields=MAX{MAXPRICE}:PRICE&FieldText=GREATER{500}:autn_user_MAXPRICE

Copyright 2025 Open Text
Version 25.4 | Last updated October 2025

Send documentation feedback

Close

Send documentation feedback

To send feedback using your default email client, open an email window.

Otherwise, send your feedback and the information below to MFI-swpdl.idoldocsfeedback@opentext.com.

We appreciate your feedback!

Product: Knowledge Discovery 25.4

Topic Title: Search Parameters