Salesforce CRM Sidebar Search vs. Advanced Search: Key Differences

Before converting the sidebar search to the Advanced search functionality please be aware of the difference between the two functionalities. 

Sidebar Search Behaviour

The current sidebar search works in the following ways.

- It does a phrase Search **
- It appends a wildcard ## to the last keyword
- It does not search custom fields

Advanced Search Behaviour

The Advanced search function works in the following ways

- It does not use the Phrase Search function
- It does not append a wildcard to the last keyword
- It does search custom fields

Wildcard Characters

Wildcards can still be used with both Sidebar Search and Advanced Search

** Phrase search means if you wrap your search keywords in doublequotes ("search") then the search function will search for those keywords in that exact phrase.

For example if you search "Today is Wednesday" the search function will search through all of your fields for that exact phrase.
Where as if you search for Today Is Wednesday then the search function will search through all of your fields and return any records that contain any one of those keywords


* (asterisk) 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, unless you are performing a Lookup Search.

For example, a search for john* finds items that start with variations on the term john, such as, johnson or johnny. A search for mi* meyers finds items with mike meyers or michael meyers.

Note : The asterisk wildcard takes on the type of the preceding character. For example, aa*a matches aaaa and aabcda, but not aa2a or aa.!//a.

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

Note : The question mark wildcard takes on the type of the preceding character. For example, pi? matches pin and pig, but not pi1 or pi!. Likewise, 12? matches 123 and 124, but not 12a or 12b.