---
title: "Advanced search"
url: "https://help.aedifion.io/en/article/advanced-search"
language: "en"
last_updated: "2026-01-02T10:08:52.935Z"
---

# Advanced search

When searching for datapoints and components, it’s possible to use wildcards: special characters that match any character or sequence of characters.

-   `_` will match any single character. Searching for `ab_` will return datapoints named `abc` and `abd`, but not a datapoint named `azc`.
-   `%` will match a sequence of characters of any length, including no character at all. Searching for `a%z` will return datapoints named `abz`, `abcdefz` and `az`, but not a datapoint named `zba`.

### Escaping

In case you wish to use the `_` or `%` characters literally in your search, you will have to precede them with a backslash (`\`), which gives `\_` and `\%`. The backslash character itself also has to be escaped in order to be searched for literally: `\\`.

### Examples

If, for example, the naming scheme for datapoints in your building management system is something like `{Room}-{System}-{Direction}\{Equipment}`, you can use:

-   `room209-%-input` to search for all sensors in room 209,
-   `room2__-` to search for all datapoints of rooms on the second floor, and
-   `AHU-%\\%temp` to search for all temperature-related datapoints of the ventilation system

### Learn more

For further information, please refer to [PostgreSQL’s documentation](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/17/functions-matching.html#FUNCTIONS-LIKE) on the subject. We use the `ILIKE` function to match datapoint and component names when searching, and we add `%` wildcards on both ends of the search so that matches can be made anywhere in the datapoint or component name.