How to search

You can effectively search the database for information that you require. Search in all fields with any combination of fields and operators.

There are several different ways to search and query data:

1.	Simple search. Lets you define a search criteria based on up to two fields. You specify field, operator and the value you want to search for. The search criteria can be saved to a file for later use.

2.	Advanced search. Lets you define a search criteria that can contain an unlimited number of fields. You can group the fields in different ways using parenthesis and the logical operators AND/OR. The search criteria can be saved to a file for later use.

3.	Summary search. Specify the field you want to search in from the drop-down list. All unique values, and the number of occurrences of each value, are then displayed in a list. Select the value you want to search for and click OK.

4.	Global Search. Lets you search in all fields.

If you want to replace a field value with another value, use the search and replace command.

To only search the records displayed in the browse list (in any view), use the Find function. The Find function will only search for one record at a time, either upwards or downwards in the list (works just like the find function in most word processors).

Before you execute a search, you must specify the following options:

Search subset

Select the 'Search subset' option if you only want to search the subset (only marked records).

Show all

Select the 'Show all' option if you want SoftCAT to mark all records found in the search, and then show these records (activate the subset). If not, SoftCAT only shows the first record that was found. Choose Show Next from the Search menu to show the next record. Choose Search Result from the Search menu to get an overview of all records found in the search.

Searches are case insensitive (that is, SoftCAT does not distinguish between upper and lower case).

You can add saved search criteria to the Search menu (choose Edit Menu from the Search menu). When you select a search criteria from the menu, SoftCAT can either execute the search, or show the 'Simple Search' or the 'Advanced Search' window (this is useful if you want to modify the value to search for).