Nuix Discover - Search technology and query syntax

Nuix Discover® employs the following two search technologies:

Content searches: Nuix Discover uses dtSearch to index and search the content of files loaded to Nuix Discover (that is, Document Content).

SQL searches: Nuix Discover uses SQL to search data loaded to fields (hereinafter referred to as fielded data).

Advanced searches constructed on the Search page can simultaneously search both Document Content and fielded data by using multiple search expressions connected by Boolean operators (that is, AND, OR, NOT).

For clarity, additional explanation is helpful.

Content searches

When you load documents to Nuix Discover either through the Ingestions or Imports features, or through a single file upload, the application stores files associated with those document records on file systems that the application manages, scans, and monitors.

For example, a document record with Document ID ABC-000001 can point to a Microsoft Word file named ABC-000001.docx. When an indexing and enrichment job is executed, Nuix Discover scans the file system and records any file whose name matches the pattern [Document ID].[extension] in the database. These files are referred to as content files. When Nuix Discover creates the document content index, dtSearch extracts text from the content files and indexes that content for searching.

Note: dtSearch does not save extracted text as a separate file. In some instances, users load documents to Nuix Discover and include both a native file and an extracted text file. For instance, if both ABC-000001.DOCX and ABC-000001.TXT are present, Nuix Discover indexes both files for content searching.

SQL searches

Nuix Discover enables searching of fielded data (for example, email subject, file path) with SQL. Nuix Discover field types include yes/no (that is, Boolean), dates, numbers, pick lists, text (up to 256 characters) and memos. Of these field types, pick list, text, and memo fields contain words that users search.

Behind the scenes, Nuix Discover leverages SQL LIKE and SQL CONTAINS methods to search these field types. SQL LIKE is a search method in which a string of characters can be searched within a field. When a SQL LIKE search is executed, Nuix Discover does a real time scan of field values to find matches. Because this search uses a real time scan, SQL LIKE searches can take longer.

In contrast, SQL CONTAINS searches leverage a SQL full text index to find matches. Because SQL CONTAINS searches leverage an index, SQL CONTAINS searches are often faster and permit the use of limited wild cards as described below.

Advanced searches

Advanced searches constructed on the Search page are comprised of search expressions.

For example, Document Title is My Document Title is an advanced search expression.

Document Title is the field (data).

“is” is the search expression operator.

My Document Title is the search term.

Search page showing the following search expression:
Document Title is My Document Title.

You can use multiple expressions along with Boolean operators such as AND, OR, and NOT. You can also group or nest search expressions to create more sophisticated filters.

Sample search query with grouping as well as AND, OR, and NOT Boolean operators.

For information about how to construct an advanced search, see “Perform an advanced search” in the Nuix Discover help.

The following sections provide more detail regarding searching in Nuix Discover.

Search operators on the advanced Search page

Search query syntax for Document Content

Regular expressions

Search query error messages and warnings


‎