CODEWITHSUNDEEP
tfs
Jeff
Jeff

Reputation: 36573

TFS Can't Search On Repro Steps Or History

I can't get a TFS query that searches on Repro Steps or History to work. We're using the Visual Studio Scrum 1.0 template....not sure if that has anything to do with it.

If I simply create a query:

Repro Steps Contains a

I get 0 results.

Conversely, if I do 

Repro Steps Does Not Contain a

I get all bugs in the entire system as a result (including ones that have the letter a in the Steps to Reproduce).

Same results when searching on the History field.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1802

Answers (3)

Ewald Hofman
Ewald Hofman

Reputation: 12668

When you query your work items, the query is transformed into an SQL statement that is executed on SQL Server. When you have Full Text Search (FTS) enabled on your SQL Server, then we will use that for the sake of performance. The downside however of FTS is that the it only can find whole words, and not part of words.

If you want to query on partial words, then uninstall FTS on your SQL Server. The query that is exected on SQL is now using the LIKE '%a%' oeperation, and the LIKE operator will search on partial words. The downside is that a LIKE operator is always performing a table scan.

If you only have a few thousand work items, you should not see a lot of difference in the performance.

Upvotes: 4

Ewald Hofman
Ewald Hofman

Reputation: 12668

I am the Program Manager from the TFS Product Team responsible for the Work Item search. I have tried to repro it on a standard TFS 2010 machine, but I was unable to reproduce your situation.

What TFS version are you using?

Upvotes: 0

pantelif
pantelif

Reputation: 8544

Experimented with the query you provide Repro Steps Contains a I got the same results you do.
I then placed Repro Steps Contains start and it did work correctly.
I then placed Repro Steps Contains tart and got back 0 results.

That leads me to conclude that TFS WIQL operates on a 'word' basis when clause is checked with "Contains"/"Does not Contain".

There are Bugs containing an a as a standalone word in our WI-store, so this 'word' basis is also considering a minimum length.

Upvotes: 2

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