Search data

  • 5 minutes

Watch the following video which demonstrates some of the ways you can search for data in Business Central.

On the most common list pages, such as Customers, Contacts, and Items, you can select the dropdown arrow in the search field and then choose between Use modern search and Use legacy search.

Legacy search finds only records that contain the exact words that you enter, in the exact order that you enter them. Modern search is faster and more flexible because it finds records that contain the matching words in any order. For example, the search text London chair finds the item LONDON Swivel Chair, blue with modern search, but returns no results with legacy search. To get exact matches with modern search, enclose the search text in quotation marks, such as "blue chair".

Modern search covers only the columns that a developer designates for it. If the Use modern search option isn't available, either the list has no columns designated for modern search, or an administrator must turn on the Use optimized text search in lists feature on the Feature Management page. When modern search is enabled for the environment, it's the default search method.

Filter operators such as 'man', man*, and @man* can be used to fine-tune a search, but only with legacy search.

For more information, see Sort, search, and filter data in lists, reports, or XMLports