FIND {SearchQuery}

The required FIND clause allows you to specify the word or phrase to search for. A search query includes:

The literal text (single word or a phrase) to search for
Optionally, Wildcards
Optionally, logical Operators, including grouping parentheses

Searches are evaluated from left to right and use Unicode (UTF-8) encoding. Text searches are case-insensitive. For example, searching for Customer, customer, or CUSTOMER all return the same results.

Note that special types of text expressions (such as macros, functions, or regular expressions) that are evaluated at run time are not allowed in the FIND clause.

Note

The SearchQuery must be delimited with curly braces. This is needed to unambiguously distinguish the search expression from other clauses in the text search.

Single Words and Phrases

A SearchQuery contains two types of text:

Single Word— single word, such as test or hello. Words in the SearchQuery are delimited by spaces, punctuation, and changes from letters to digits (and vice-versa). Words are always case insensitive. In Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK), words are also delimited by pairs of CJK-type characters.
Phrase— collection of words and spaces surrounded by double quotes such as "john smith". Multiple words can be combined together with logical and grouping Operators to form a more complex query. Certain keywords (“and,” “or,” and “and not”) must be surrounded in double quotes if you want to search for those words, otherwise they are interpreted as the corresponding operator.

Wildcards

You can specify the following wildcard characters to match text patterns in your search:

Wildcard	Description
*	Use an asterisk () to match one or more characters at the middle or end of your search term. Do not use the asterisk at the beginning of a search term. If you are searching for a literal asterisk in a word or phrase, then escape the asterisk (precede it with the `\` character). For example, a search for `john` finds items that start with variations on the term `john`, such as, `johnson` or `johnny`. A search for `ma*` finds items with `mary` or `marty`.
?	Use a question mark (?) to match one character at the middle or end of your search term. Do not use the question mark wildcard at the beginning of a search term. For example, a search for `jo?n` finds items with the word `john` or `joan`.

Wildcard

Description

Use an asterisk (*) to match one or more characters at the middle or end of your search term. Do not use the asterisk at the beginning of a search term. If you are searching for a literal asterisk in a word or phrase, then escape the asterisk (precede it with the \ character). For example, a search for john* finds items that start with variations on the term john, such as, johnson or johnny. A search for ma* finds items with mary or marty.

Use a question mark (?) to match one character at the middle or end of your search term. Do not use the question mark wildcard at the beginning of a search term. For example, a search for jo?n finds items with the word john or joan.

When using wildcards, consider the following issues:

The more focused your wildcard search, the faster the search results are returned, and the more likely the results will reflect your intention. For example, to search for all occurrences of the word prospect (or prospects, the plural form), it is more efficient to specify prospect* in the search string than to specify a less restrictive wildcard search (such as prosp*) that could return extraneous matches (such as prosperity).
Tailor your searches to find all variations of a word. For example, to find property and properties, you would specify propert*.
Punctuation is indexed. To find * or ? inside a phrase, you must enclose your search string in quotation marks and you must escape the special character. For example, "where are you\?" finds the phrase where are you?. The escape character (\) is required in order for this search to work correctly.

Operators

You can use the following special operators to focus your text search.

Operator	Description
`" "`	Use quotation marks around search terms to find an exact phrase match. This can be especially useful when searching for text with punctuation. For example, `"acme.com"` finds items that contain the exact text `acme.com`. A search for `"monday meeting"` finds items that contain the exact phrase `monday meeting`.
`AND`	Finds items that match all of the search terms. For example, `john AND smith` finds items with both the word `john` and the word `smith`. In most cases if an operator isn't specified, `AND` is the default operator. When searching articles, documents, and solutions, `AND` must be specified because `OR` is the default operator. Case-insensitive.
`OR`	Finds items with at least one of the search terms. For example, `john OR smith` finds items with either `john` or `smith`, or both words. Case-insensitive.
`AND NOT`	Finds items that do not contain the search term. For example, `john AND NOT smith` finds items that have the word `john` but not the word `smith`. Case-insensitive.
( )	Use parentheses around search terms in conjunction with logical operators to group search terms. For example, you can search for: `("Bob" and "Jones") OR ("Sally" and "Smith")`—searches for either Bob Jones or Sally Smith. `("Bob") and ("Jones" OR "Thomas") and Sally Smith`—searches for Bob Jones or Bob Thomas and Sally Smith.

Reserved Characters

The following characters are reserved:

? & | ! { } [ ] ( ) ^ ~ * : \ " ' + -

Reserved characters, if specified in a text search, must be escaped (preceded by the backslash \ character) in order to be properly interpreted. An error occurs if you do not precede reserved characters with a backslash. This is true even if the SearchQuery is enclosed in double quotes.

For example, to search for the following text:

{1+1}:2

insert a backslash before each reserved character:

\{1\+1\}\:2

Example FIND Clauses

Type of Search	Example(s)
Single term examples	`FIND {MyProspect}` `FIND {mylogin@mycompany.com}` `FIND {FIND}` `FIND {IN}` `FIND {RETURNING}` `FIND {LIMIT}`
Single phrase	`FIND {John Smith}`
Term OR Term	`FIND {MyProspect OR MyCompany}`
Term AND Term	`FIND {MyProspect AND MyCompany}`
Term AND Phrase	`FIND {MyProspect AND "John Smith"}`
Term OR Phrase	`FIND {MyProspect OR "John Smith"}`
Complex query using AND/OR	`FIND {MyProspect AND "John Smith" OR MyCompany}` `FIND {MyProspect AND ("John Smith" OR MyCompany)}`
Complex query using AND NOT	`FIND {MyProspect AND NOT MyCompany}`
Wildcard search	`FIND {My*}`
Escape sequences	`FIND {Why not\?}`
Invalid or incomplete phrase (will not succeed)	`FIND {"John Smith}`

FIND Clauses in Apex

The syntax of the FIND clause in Apex differs from the syntax of the FIND clause in the Web services API:

In Apex, the value of the FIND clause is demarcated with single quotes. For example:
```
FIND 'map*' IN ALL FIELDS RETURNING Account (Id, Name), Contact, Opportunity, Lead
```
In the Force.com API, the value of the FIND clause is demarcated with braces. For example:
```
FIND {map*} IN ALL FIELDS RETURNING Account (Id, Name), Contact, Opportunity, Lead
```

The Force.com Apex Code Developer's Guide has more information about using SOSL and SOQL with Apex.