# Looking for an old documentation page about search() function

**URL:** <https://forum.getodk.org/t/looking-for-an-old-documentation-page-about-search-function/20594>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [June 25, 2019, 12:26pm UTC](https://forum.getodk.org/t/looking-for-an-old-documentation-page-about-search-function/20594 "2019-06-25T12:26:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mathieubossaert](https://getodk.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.getodk.org/mathieubossaert/32/6131_2.png) [@mathieubossaert](https://forum.getodk.org/u/mathieubossaert)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2019, 12:26pm UTC](https://forum.getodk.org/t/looking-for-an-old-documentation-page-about-search-function/20594/1 "2019-06-25T12:26:45Z")

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Hi,

This old page does not exist anymore and I can't find information somewhere else about search() options : [https://opendatakit.org/help/form-design/data-preloading/](https://opendatakit.org/help/form-design/data-preloading/)  
Its content was close to this : [https://gist.github.com/yanokwa/a2a03d691ef4cf3d5bee/revisions#diff-b787ab8122b237f0dc42fb8ec33b64e3](https://gist.github.com/yanokwa/a2a03d691ef4cf3d5bee/revisions#diff-b787ab8122b237f0dc42fb8ec33b64e3)

Thanks a lot.

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**Author:** ![Grzesiek2010](https://getodk.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.getodk.org/grzesiek2010/32/2881_2.png) [@Grzesiek2010](https://forum.getodk.org/u/Grzesiek2010)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2019, 2:51pm UTC](https://forum.getodk.org/t/looking-for-an-old-documentation-page-about-search-function/20594/2 "2019-06-26T14:51:11Z")

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Hi @mathieubossaert

there is another section which contains a sample [http://xlsform.org/en/#dynamic-selects-from-pre-loaded-data](http://xlsform.org/en/#dynamic-selects-from-pre-loaded-data)

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**Author:** ![mathieubossaert](https://getodk.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.getodk.org/mathieubossaert/32/6131_2.png) [@mathieubossaert](https://forum.getodk.org/u/mathieubossaert)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2019, 2:58pm UTC](https://forum.getodk.org/t/looking-for-an-old-documentation-page-about-search-function/20594/3 "2019-06-26T14:58:18Z")

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Thanks @Grzesiek2010,  
we found this but all the available and great options available are not listed nor explained

- startswith
- endswith
- contains
- matches

We have it but I think it would be useful to make those options more visible. It helped us a lot in the past (and today during the course)

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**Author:** ![yanokwa](https://getodk.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.getodk.org/yanokwa/32/1695_2.png) [@yanokwa](https://forum.getodk.org/u/yanokwa)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2019, 4:25pm UTC](https://forum.getodk.org/t/looking-for-an-old-documentation-page-about-search-function/20594/4 "2019-06-26T16:25:52Z")

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[http://web.archive.org/web/20170710045637/https://opendatakit.org/help/form-design/data-preloading](http://web.archive.org/web/20170710045637/https://opendatakit.org/help/form-design/data-preloading) has all the old content. I've added an issue at [https://github.com/XLSForm/xlsform.github.io/issues/166](https://github.com/XLSForm/xlsform.github.io/issues/166) so we can add the options to the docs.

I think the reason it's not added is because we had been discussing deprecating search() and wanted to limit the number of people currently using it.

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**Author:** ![mathieubossaert](https://getodk.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.getodk.org/mathieubossaert/32/6131_2.png) [@mathieubossaert](https://forum.getodk.org/u/mathieubossaert)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 7:52am UTC](https://forum.getodk.org/t/looking-for-an-old-documentation-page-about-search-function/20594/5 "2019-06-27T07:52:45Z")

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Thank you Yaw. If you plan to deprecate search() do you think there is/will be an alternative ? We use it a lot to limit options in a select\_one, from a csv media containing thousands species names (400 000).  
Here is a form example tunned by @LN : [https://github.com/opendatakit/collect/issues/3132#issuecomment-499222715](https://github.com/opendatakit/collect/issues/3132#issuecomment-499222715)  
User select if he want to point a plant or an animal, type 3 letters, and choose the species he wants in a filtered list.  
@Remy_CLEMENT

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![yanokwa](https://getodk.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.getodk.org/yanokwa/32/1695_2.png) [@yanokwa](https://forum.getodk.org/u/yanokwa)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 3:51pm UTC](https://forum.getodk.org/t/looking-for-an-old-documentation-page-about-search-function/20594/6 "2019-06-27T15:51:18Z")

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[External data - current state of affairs](https://forum.getodk.org/t/external-data-current-state-of-affairs/14564) has our current progress. The summary is that search() is very popular and we won't remove it without a reasonable and fast alternative.