Discovery Search Options
You can perform a global search or discovery search to find assets and identify relationships to other assets. Global search retrieves results from the Model repository and optionally, Business Glossary. Discovery search retrieves results from the Model repository and Business Glossary, in addition to profiles based on profile results in the profiling warehouse.
You can search for assets, such as data objects, profiles, and mapping specifications. Enter a search string to search for assets that match the search string and have an association with the search string. You can use wildcard characters when you search for assets.
You can use the following wildcard characters when you search for assets:
- * (Asterisk)
- Add to the end of the search string to find all asset names that start with the search string. For example, to search for all asset names starting with the "emp" string, you can type in "emp*" in the search field.
- ? (Question mark)
- Include in the search string to represent an alphanumeric character.
Note: You cannot start a search string with a wildcard character when you search for assets. The search is not case sensitive.
To search for two or more words together as a phrase, include the words in double quotation marks. Use the character + to represent the AND operator and search for a term that must appear in the search results. For example, if the search string is +sensitive +data, Search Service finds metadata that includes both the terms. Use a blank space to represent the OR operator. For example, if the search string is sensitive data, the Search Service finds metadata that contains either one of the terms.
If the search string contains a hyphen (-), underscore (_), or camel case, the Search Service finds the whole word and part words separated by the delimiter. For example, if you search for Profile_Customer, the search engine finds Profile, Customer, and Profile_Customer in the repositories. To include special characters, such as * and ?, in your search string, include the search string that contains special characters in double quotes.
You can perform a discovery search that includes a keyword search and discovery filter. For example, you might want to find employee ID columns that use the format <FirstNameInitial><LastnameInitial>-<SSN> so that you can identify data security risks. To search for the employee ID columns, enter Employee ID in the Search panel of the Library workspace and set the pattern filter to XX-999999999 <= 100%.
Discovery Search Criteria
Use the discovery search criteria to search for information based on criteria, such as patterns, datatypes, unique values, and null values. You can use the conditional operators =, >=, or <=in the search.
The following table describes the discovery search criteria that you can use for discovery search:
Option | Description |
|---|
Search | Text expression that you want to search for. |
Clear | Clears the search string and all the other search criteria that you previously selected. |
Pattern of | Column pattern and percentage that you want to include in the search. Note: The option does not accept control characters in a pattern. |
Datatype of | Column datatype and percentage that you want to include in the search. |
Unique values | Percentage of unique values in columns that you want to include in the search. |
Nulls | Percentage of null values in columns that you want to include in the search. |
Searching for an Asset
You can search for an asset in the Library workspace. The search results include assets created in both Developer tool and Analyst tool.
1. Open the Library workspace.
2. Verify that you are in the Discovery Search section.
3. In the Search field, type in the search string that you want to search.
4. Configure the search filters to narrow down your search.
The filters include patterns, datatypes, unique values, and null values.
5. Click the Search icon.