Searching Contacts by First Name, Last Name, or a Nickname Using Text Filter Add In

[Anonymous]

I am trying to create a formula for a text filter search that will allow someone to search by either a contacts first and last name or by a designated nickname. Currently I have two columns of data: one containing both the first and last name (Contact.FirstandLast) and one containing the designated nickname (Contact.Nickname).

I'm not sure what function(s) would allow this to be possible. 

[Anonymous]

Hi @Anonymous,

You could combine the two columns in a new Calculated Table, like this:

PLUs = UNION(

       DISTINCT(<YourTable>[Nickname Column]),

       DISTINCT(<YourTable>[FirstLast Column])

)

After that, I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to do - could you give more details on the goal?

Thanks,

Nathan

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous  Thanks for the reply. The end goal is to be able to search by a contact's first, last, and/or nickname. 

Ex. I have a contact Douglas Johnson. I want to be able to search by Douglas Johnson or Doug Johnson. 

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous  - 

Ah, I wasn't familiar with the Text Filter visual - pretty nice!

First you would create the table as mentioned above. Then use that new column in the Search Filter visual.

Hope This Helps

Nathan

[Anonymous]

Actually, scratch the former solution. That won't work, because you would need to create a relationship that wouldn't work. What you can do is add a calculated column to your table. It will concatenate the 2 columns.

SearchColumn = <YourTable>[FullName] & <YourTable>[NickName]

Then you can search on that column.

[Anonymous]

I'll give this a shot. One of the limitations I have come across with the text filter search is that it does search for all the characters in the criteria it's searching (if that makes sense).

Ex. If I have Douglas D. Johnson and search for Douglas Johnson it will not appear because it is searching for the full name. 

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous -

In my limited testing, I see that you can search for Doug, and that would return all values that include that text.

If you want Douglas Johnson, you could create two filter visuals, like this: