The comparison operator in criteria may be > (greater than), < (less than), = or == (equal), >= (greater than or equal), <= (less than or equal), <> or != (not equal), or like or ~ (pattern matching).

You can use AND in the specifying search criteria to join multiple filters. For example, you join the two valid filters "a < b " and c < d with "a < b and c < d ". Do not use an expression like "a AND b ". It is an invalid expression, since "a " and "b " are not valid expressions on their own.

The value in criteria may be a string, number, date, or true. String values may be delimited with single quotes or # (number sign); for example, "state = 'CA'" or "state = #CA#". Date values are JavaScript date.toString( ) formatted; for example, #Wed Apr 17 14:18:14 GMT+0000 2002# or #Wed Apr 17 14:18:14 GMT-0700 (Pacific Daylight Time) 2002#). Dates can also be specified as a number corresponding to the value returned from a JavaScript Date object getTime( ).

If the comparison operator is like or ~ , the string value may contain an asterisk (* ) to find one or more occurrences of any character or substring. For example, "state like 'C*'" matches California and Colorado. You can also use leading and trailing asterisks to find a substring contained within the values. For example, "state like '*as*'" matches Alaska, Arkansas, and Massachusetts.

Asterisks can be used only at the end of a criteria string, or together at both the beginning and end of a criteria string, as shown above. You cannot use the asterisk as a leading wildcard ('*str' ), or embedded wildcard ('s*r' ). String comparisons are not case sensitive. If you specify like and do not include any asterisks, then *value* is assumed.

The comparison operator $= will do a case-sensitive string search.

The following are all valid JavaScript examples of search criteria:

myDate = new Date(2002, 10, 23); 
search = myDBSet.createSearch("startDate >= " + myDate); 
search = myDBSet.createSearch("startDate >= " + myDate.getTime()); 
search = myDBSet.createSearch("address like #park lane#"); 
search = myDBSet.createSearch("name == 'David'"); 
search = myDBSet.createSearch("city == Chicago"); 
search = myDBSet.createSearch("zipcode >= 90302"); 
search = myDBSet.createSearch("hasPaid == true"); 
search = myDBSet.createSearch("city $= Chicago");