Searching Custom Text field for partial matches

Erin Blomert
Contributor
February 9, 2022

Hello Community!  This should be so easy and it's not working at all and making me crazy.

I am in a Company-managed product.  I have a custom text field, "Serial Number".  Serial number is set up using the Search Template "Free Text Searcher".

image.png

 

I want to search this field for a partial match, but it seems like this is just not supported.  For example, I want a serial number ending in 182.  Even "contains 182" would be fine, but I can not get that far.

The absolute ideal would be a way to get this to work using the top-right hand corner search bar instead of going in to the Advanced Search!

As I have failed there, here are my results in Advanced...

 

"Serial Number[Short text]" ~ 182 finds nothing, even though results do exist

"Serial Number[Short text]" ~ *182 pulls an error as * must be used in a string

"Serial Number[Short text]" ~ "*182" says that * is not allowed as the first character of a string

"Serial Number[Short text]" ~ "2*182" at least searches for the "2*" but actually ignores the rest of the string and I get results like 2014090 in addition to the desired result.

 

This does NOT seem complicated, but I can not believe it's just not possible...

Please help!

I should note that some serial numbers contain a '-' character and I have noticed that there is a bug fix request for failing to search such numbers.  Also crazy!  But I can not get it to work even with numbers that do not contain hyphens.

1 answer

0 votes
Alexis Robert
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
February 9, 2022

Hi @Erin Blomert , 

 

as you've said, the issue with JQL search is that you can't start the search with "?" or "*" wich are wildcards.

However, the following works to find any issue with ABC in the field : 

summary ~ "ABC"

 

I think maybe you forgot to use quotes around your search.

 

You can also vote for the feature to use "*" at the start of the search here : https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRASERVER-6218

 

Let me know if this helps,

 

--Alexis

Erin Blomert
Contributor
February 9, 2022

Hi @Alexis Robert , this works for Summary and Description, but it returns no results for custom text fields. 

Stephen Chisholm
Contributor
September 15, 2023

I have the same question ... I'll wait for Alexis' response.

@Alexis Robert 

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