Microsoft KB Archive/256216

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Relational Wildcard Queries on Text Columns Return Unexpected Results

Article ID: 256216

Article Last Modified on 10/6/2005



APPLIES TO

  • Microsoft Index Server 2.0
  • Microsoft Site Server 3.0 Standard Edition
  • Microsoft Windows Indexing Service 2.0



This article was previously published under Q256216

SYMPTOMS

If you use relational wildcard queries on text columns, you may get unexpected results. The following example demonstrates this using a document with a custom property value:

"Folders/Switzerland/Basel/CP6/CP6.1/Andromeda/XYZ"

If you then query for this custom property value with wildcards at different positions in the string using a query page, at some positions, the wildcard query returns an empty result; however, in other positions, the resultset includes the document. For example, a relational wildcard query on the following does not return the document:

@Custom_Property Folders/Switzerland/B*

However, a wildcard query on the following does return the document:

@Custom_Property Folders/Switzerland/Basel/CP6*

RESOLUTION

NOTE: This hotfix is only available for Site Server 3.0. For other products, refer to the "Workaround" section.

A supported fix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that is described in this article. Apply it only to computers that are experiencing this specific problem. This fix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, Microsoft recommends that you wait for the next Site Server Service Pack that contains this hotfix.

To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

NOTE: In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The typical support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

The English version of the fix should have the following file attributes or later:

Date         Version      Size      Filename       Platform
-----------------------------------------------------------
12-21-2000   5.0.1781.3   526,576   ocifrmwk.dll   x86
12-21-2000   5.0.1781.3   590,720   oquery.dll     x86



WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, do the following:

  1. For these types of pattern matching queries, use regular expressions instead of the relational queries. To do this, use the following syntax:

    #Custom_Property Folders/Switzerland/B*

    When you use regular expressions, Microsoft recommends setting AllowEnumeration to TRUE. Please note that this may cause a performance penalty on your queries.

    For information on how to set AllowEnumaration, please refer to your Index Server and Site Server documentation.

  2. Configure only the Neutral language resources. By default, properties are indexed with English resources. If you use Neutral resources, the advanced normalization behaves differently to the other language resources. As a result, the relational wildcard query returns the expected result.


STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

Keywords: kbqfe kbprb kbhotfixserver KB256216