Auto-append trailing * wildcard to search for substrings in modern sharepoint

Copper Contributor

I have a modern communication site and if I search a list for 'can', it will not return Canada, or Canadian in my results. but if I search for can*, both items will be returned.

 

I believe it is possible to program classic search to append this wildcard automatically, so I don't need to type the * every time. But does anyone know how I can achieve this with modern search?

 

And please no one reply with, "this isn't possible". It seems to me, that if this isn't possible, why hasn't Microsoft fixed this yet? I've never seen another intranet search engine work this way.

 

Or am I missing a simple solution to this? Any help would be greatly appreciated. It is not natural for end users to have to remember to type a * at the end of their search string, which consequently returns poor results for their searches..

 

 

4 Replies
I'm running into the same thing myself. I am creating an employee directory, which works great, except for the fact that the users will need to use wildcards to get results. With over 1500 users, I have a feeling we'd get a call every time someone used it. I'll let you know if I find any answers. Good Luck!

@Jeremy_Colwell @Boe_Barlage 

Have either of you had any progress on the issue? 

I'm in the same position, having spent the better part of a day searching for a solution to no avail.

 

I'll also respond should I find a reasonable solution.

@Jonas_Nord 
We had the same problem. We also had to auto append a * to the search term. This was possible because we developed a custom search bar. AFAIK there is no way to circumvent this.

Custom search box.png

Thanks for the input @Paul_HK_de_Jong
That's one more point for creating a custom search bar, I'm currently reluctant to create a custom search component but we'll see where time takes us.