Introduction
Astrato introduces a unified approach to searching across various elements, including tables, schemas, data views, workbooks, connections, and user information. This functionality spans both frontend and backend operations, facilitating efficient navigation and data manipulation within our system.
Our search uses pushdown SQL, which runs ultrafast, super flexible and always up to date.
Advanced searching - special characters
To enhance search flexibility and precision, we adopt specific conventions for handling special characters and escaping sequences. Below is an overview of these conventions:
Backslash (\): Serves as the escape character, allowing special characters to be included in search queries.
Slash (/): Reserved for future regex search functionalities.
Asterisk (*): Acts as a wildcard for matching any sequence of characters.
Question mark (?): Represents a single-character wildcard.
Search Syntax and Interpretations
This search syntax can also be used in the filter tab of the properties panels for charts and other data objects. This syntax is available for use with the Like and not like operators.
End User Filter String | Expectation | Effective SQL Representation |
astrato | Finds all elements containing "astrato" |
|
astrato | Identical to "astrato" search |
|
astrato* | Finds elements starting with "astrato" |
|
??trato | Matches elements ending with "trato" with two preceding characters |
|
ast??to | Searches for elements starting with "ast", followed by any two characters, ending with "to" |
|
*astrato | Finds elements containing "*astrato" |
|
%astrato | Searches for elements containing "%astrato" |
|
\a\s\t\r\a\t\o | Allows for escaping unnecessary characters, searching for "astrato" |
|
\astrato\ | Finds elements containing "\astrato" |
|
Key Rules
Escaping examples | Input | Evaluated as |
? | \?astrato |
|
_ | _astrato |
|
Wildcard characters ("*" and "?") are taken literally if escaped.
Unescaped search queries automatically append wildcards at both ends, except when special characters are explicitly used.
Implementation Notes
Google Sheets Compatibility
The described search functionality is not applicable to Google Sheets integrations.
Development Priorities
Case Insensitivity: Ensure search is insensitive to case variations, e.g., "Astrato" vs. "astrato".
Special Handling for Data View Editor & Fields: Underscores in table and field names are interpreted as spaces (" ") for improved user experience. This approximation covers most cases, acknowledging minor exceptions.
Phased Rollout: Our initial release focuses on data-related searches, including filter bar search, filter object search and chart filters. Other parts of the product will follow.
Coming Soon
Enhanced regex search capabilities.
Expanded metadata search functionality.
Improved integration with Google Sheets.
This documentation outlines the foundational principles of our search functionality, ensuring users can efficiently navigate and utilize the system's features. Further enhancements and updates will be communicated as they become available.