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This page describes the syntax for MusicBrainz ''indexed searches'' which use the Lucene text search engine. The search indexes for these types of searches are updated every 3 hours, and thus may not reflect up to the minute changes. The ''direct search'' searches the database directly: it can only carry out simple keyword searches with no boolean logic, but it is always up-to-date. ==Overview== Lucene offers much flexibility in defining search queries for all needs imaginable. To make it easier to understand, this page was divided into subpages. While this one offers an introduction to the most commonly used features, the others explain more advanced search operators and constructs. First some words on the the terminology used in these pages: ;Query: A query is the complete expression you put in one of the search fields. ;Term: A term is the smallest unit inside a query. In the default case each single word inside a query is a term of its own, except for ... ;Phrases: A phrase is a groups of words surrounded by quotation marks. Even though it's containing more than one word, a phrase is handled like a term. ;Operators: or '''search operators''' are special characters and words that define either how single terms are processed by the search system (e.g. in '''-house''' the '''-''' tells the search system, not to return anything with the word ''house'') or how to terms are to be combined in the search (e.g. '''one AND love''' means search for anything that has both words ''one'' and ''love''). The sections below [[Text Search Syntax#query-syntax|Query Syntax]] describe simple and commonly used operators, more advanced features can be found in the [https://lucene.apache.org/core/7_7_2/queryparser/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/classic/package-summary.html#package.description Lucene Search Syntax] But first take a look at a few simple examples which might show everything necessary for the majority of your searches. ==Notes== * It is not possible to search for an album based on its track length, however, it is possible to search via total number of tracks. * Any search for a specific date will currently also return any results that match the year or year and month alone. For example, a search for "1980-01-22" will also return all matches for "1980-01" and "1980". This is a known issue reported as [[jira:SEARCH-634|SEARCH-634]]. ==Example searches== ===Artists=== : '''"tori amos"''' ::* search artist, sortname and alias fields : '''comment:electronic''' ::* search for the word ''electronic'' in artist disambiguation (comment) fields : '''begin:1984 AND type:group''' ::* search for all groups formed in 1984 ===Releases=== :'''café del mar''' ::* search for all ''Café del Mar'' albums :'''"the understanding" AND artist:royksopp''' ::* search for the album ''The Understanding'' by the artist ''Röyksopp'' :'''date:1999 AND country:de AND rock''' ::* search for releases from Germany in 1999 with the word ''rock'' in them ===Recordings=== :'''type:album AND amadeus''' ::* search for recordings with the title ''amadeus'' from albums :'''day life''' ::* will retrieve ''A Day In The Life'' ::* will retrieve ''Life In A Day'' ::* will retrieve ''This Day'' ::* will retrieve ''That's Life'' :'''day AND life''' ::* will retrieve ''A Day In The Life'' ::* will retrieve ''Life In A Day'' ::* will not retrieve ''This Day'' ::* will not retrieve ''That's Life'' :'''"day in the life"''' ::* will retrieve ''A Day In The Life'' ::* will not retrieve ''Life In A Day'' ::* will not retrieve ''This Day'' ::* will not retrieve ''That's Life'' :'''"voodoo people" AND artist:"the prodigy"''' ::* search for all recordings with the title ''Voodoo People'' by the artist ''The Prodigy'' <span id="query-syntax"></span> ==Query syntax== ===Wildcards=== To perform a single character wildcard search use the "?" symbol. To perform a multiple character wildcard search use the "*" symbol. For example, to search for "text" or "test" you can use the search '''te?t''', to search for "test", "tests" or "tester", you can use the search '''test*'''. ''Note: You cannot use a * or ? symbol as the first character of a search.'' ===Fuzzy searches=== To do a fuzzy search use the tilde, "~", symbol at the end of a single word term. Optionally can specify the required similarity, a value is between 0 and 1. For example to search for a term similar in spelling to "roam" use the fuzzy search '''roam~''' or '''roam~0.8''' ==MusicBrainz-specific search fields== ===Area=== {{:XML_Web_Service/Version_2/Search/AreaSearch}} ===Artist=== {{:XML_Web_Service/Version_2/Search/ArtistSearch}} ===Event=== {{:XML_Web_Service/Version_2/Search/EventSearch}} ===Instrument=== {{:XML_Web_Service/Version_2/Search/InstrumentSearch}} ===Label=== {{:XML_Web_Service/Version_2/Search/LabelSearch}} ===Place=== {{:XML_Web_Service/Version_2/Search/PlaceSearch}} ===Recording=== {{:XML_Web_Service/Version_2/Search/RecordingSearch}} ===Release=== {{:XML_Web_Service/Version_2/Search/ReleaseSearch}} ===Release Group=== {{:XML_Web_Service/Version_2/Search/ReleaseGroupSearch}} ===Series=== {{:XML_Web_Service/Version_2/Search/SeriesSearch}} ===Work=== {{:XML_Web_Service/Version_2/Search/WorkSearch}} ===Annotation=== {{:XML_Web_Service/Version_2/Search/AnnotationSearch}} ===Tag=== {{:XML_Web_Service/Version_2/Search/TagSearch}} ===CD Stub=== {{:XML_Web_Service/Version_2/Search/CDStubsSearch}} [[Category:Documentation]] [[Category:WikiDocs Page]]

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