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Comparison Search Field
Common Properties
Caption
The caption is the text that is shown in front of the actual search field. This is a translatable text. See Translatable Texts.
Type
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| Normal | The search field is visible and editable by the end user. |
| Hidden | The search field is hidden and is only there to selectively display objects in the grid. |
| Read-only | The search field is visible but not editable by the end user. |
A hidden search field is an easy way to selectively display the contents of a grid. For example, a grid showing cars and their colors can be limited to only showing red cars by adding a hidden search field on color with default value ‘red’.
Default value
The default value is the initial value for the search field. In the case of a normal search field, this value can then be edited by the end user. In the case of a hidden or read-only search field the value is fixed.
Custom Date Format
Available only for attributes of the date and time type.
This property determines how the entered value is formatted. The custom date format is a string that allows for any combination of symbols found in the table below. Any punctuation will be rendered literally.
| Symbol | No. | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| G | 1 | AD | The era |
| y | 1, 3..n | 2010 | Year |
| y | 2 | 10 | Year |
| Y | 1, 3..n | 2009 | Week year, use in combination with w for week number formatting |
| Y | 2 | 09 | Week year, use in combination with w for week number formatting |
| M | 1..2 | 09 | Month |
| M | 3 | Sept | Month |
| M | 4 | September | Month |
| w | 1..2 | 27 | Week of year, use for week number formatting |
| d | 1..2 | 12 | Day of month |
| D | 1..3 | 93 | Day of year |
| a | 1 | AM | AM or PM |
| h | 1..2 | 11 | Hour (1-12) |
| H | 1..2 | 13 | Hour (0-23) |
| k | 1..2 | 10 | Hour (1-24) |
| K | 1..2 | 0 | Hour (0-11) |
| m | 1..2 | 59 | Minute, use one or two for zero padding |
| s | 1..2 | 12 | Second, use one or two for zero padding |
| S | 1..3 | 153 | Milliseconds |
| E | 1..2 | 05 | Day of week |
| E | 3 | Thu | Day of week |
| E | 4 | Thursday | Day of week |
| z | 1..4 | Pacific Standard Time | Time zone |
| Z | 1..3 | -04:00 | Time zone offset |
| Z | 4 | GMT-04:00 | Time zone offset |
These are some examples:
| Format | Example Output |
|---|---|
EEEE d MMMM yyy G, h:mm a ss's |
Tuesday 29 March 2011 AD, 1:37 PM 48s |
h:mm a |
1:37 PM |
yyy D KK:mm |
2011 88 01:26 |
EEEE MMMM d yyy |
Tuesday March 29 2011 |
EEE, MMM dd, ''yy |
Wed, Jul 04, ‘01 |
Placeholder Text
Available only for attributes of the date and time type.
The placeholder text is shown if the search input is empty. It can be used to give the end-user a hint as to the expected format. Note: placeholder texts will not work if a native date picker is available (for example, on iOS and Android versions 4.0 and above).
General Properties
Attribute (path)
The text that is entered into the search field is searched for in the given attribute. For each object in the grid, the attribute is inspected to see whether it matches the value that is being searched.
The attribute can be an attribute of the entity in the data grid but also an attribute of an associated entity (an attribute path). The path can follow any number of associations of type reference and optionally a reference set at the end. If you use a reference set all references will be checked for possible matches.
The table below shows the types of the attributes that are allowed in search fields.
| Search field | Allowed direct attributes | Allowed associated attributes |
|---|---|---|
| Comparison | AutoNumber, Currency, Date, Decimal, Float, Integer, Long, String | AutoNumber, Currency, Date, Decimal, Float, Integer, Long, String |
| Drop-down | Boolean, Enumeration | AutoNumber, Boolean (added in 5.5.0), Currency, Decimal, Enumeration, Float, Integer, Long, String |
Comparison
The value entered by the end user (or the default value in the case of hidden and read-only search fields) is compared to the value of the attribute of each of the objects in the grid. If the match succeeds, the object will be part of the search result. There are different ways in which the attribute value and the entered value can be compared. In the third column below you see the type of search field for which the comparison operator is allowed.
| Value | Description | Search field types |
|---|---|---|
| Contains | Does the attribute value contain the entered value? | Text (attribute must be of type String) |
| Starts with | Does the attribute value start with the entered value? | Text (attribute must be of type String) |
| Greater | Is the attribute value greater than the entered value? | Text, Date |
| Greater or equal | Is the attribute value greater than or equal to the entered value? | Text, Date |
| Equal | Is the attribute value the same as the entered value? | Text, Date, Drop-down |
| Not equal | Is the attribute value not the same as the entered value? | Text, Date, Drop-down |
| Smaller or equal | Is the attribute value smaller than or equal to the entered value? | Text, Date |
| Smaller | Is the attribute value smaller than the entered value? | Text, Date |
Default value: Equal
Date comparisons and the influence of the default value
It is possible to search on date attributes using equality. What happens with the time component belonging to the date is dependent on the default value of the comparison search field.
| Default value | Search query | Result example (input: August 4, 2100) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| None | Search field is empty. Represents a 24 hour date range starting at midnight of the specified date. | Search between August 4, 0:00 - August 5, 0:00 | |
| [%CurrentDateTime%] | Search field shows the current date. Represents a 24 hour date range starting at the current time. | Search between August 4, |
|
| [%BeginOfCurrentDay%] | Search field shows the current date. Represents a 24 hour date range starting at midnight of the specified date. | Search between August 4, 0:00 - August 5, 0:00 |