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Solr search examples

Last update:
May 18, 2026
The following examples show the search syntax used while performing search operations using Solr:
  • Single word search: The following example shows how to search for a single word in a collection:
    <cfsearch name="qsearch1" collection="solr_complex" criteria="Graphics">
  • Multiple word search: The following example shows how to search a document or query having words "ColdFusion" and "Green" in it:
<cfsearch name="qsearch1" 

collection="solr_complex" 

criteria="+Green +Coldfusion">
  • Search with at least one word: The following example shows how search for at least "Coldfusion" OR (Green OR Blue):
<cfsearch name="qsearch1" 

collection="solr_complex" 

criteria=" +Coldfusion Green Blue">
  • Search for one word, but not the other: The following example shows how to search for "Green" but NOT "Coldfusion":
<cfsearch name="qsearch1" 

collection="solr_complex" 

criteria=" -Coldfusion +Green">
  • Fuzzy search: The following example shows how to search words like roam, roams, foam, foams:
<cfsearch name="qsearch1" 

collection="solr_complex" 

criteria=" roam~">
  • Alternate way to perform a fuzzy search for "roam":
<cfsearch name="qsearch1" 

collection="solr_complex" 

criteria="roam~">
  • Searching for higher similarity with roam:
<cfsearch name="qsearch1" 

collection="solr_complex" 

criteria=" roam~0.8" >
  • Wildcard search: The following syntax searches for 'test', 'text', 'teat', and so on:
<cfsearch name="qsearch1" 

collection="solr_complex" 

criteria=" te?t">
  • This example searches for 'test', 'text', 'teeeeeext', and 'texyzt':
<cfsearch name="qsearch1" 

collection="solr_complex" 

criteria=" te*t">
Note:
You cannot use a * or question mark (?) symbol as the first character of a search.
  • Proximity search: To search for "apache" and "jakarta" within five words of each other in a document, use the following search:
    <cfsearch name="qsearch1"

    collection="solr_complex"

    criteria="jakarta apache" ~10>
  • Range Search: Following searches all documents with title between 'fuzzy1.txt' to 'text1.txt':
    <cfsearch name="qsearch"

    collection="solr_srch"

    criteria="title:fuzzy1.txt TO text1.txt">
    To search a document whose modification date is between a given range:
    <cfsearch name="qsearch"

    collection="solr_srch"

    criteia="modified:20080101 TO 20500101">
    These

    ranges are inclusive of start and end terms. To exclude them, use

    curly brackets{} instead.
  • Field search: To search any document whose title contains "fuzzy1.txt"
    <cfsearch name="qsearch"

    collection="solr_srch"

    criteria="title:fuzzy1.txt">
    Searching for document that contains title as 'fuzzy1.txt' OR 'fuzzy2.txt':
    <cfsearch name="qsearch"

    collection="solr_srch"

    criteria="title:fuzzy?.txt">
    The following syntax can be used to perform the same search:
    <cfsearch name="qsearch"

    collection="solr_srch"

    criteria= ""title:fuzzy1.txt"" OR ""title:fuzzy2.txt"">
    Alternatively, you can search using the following syntax:
    <cfsearch name="qsearch"

    collection="solr_srch"

    criteria="title:(test* +fuzzy1*)">
  • String search:
    <cfsearch name="qsearch1"

    collection="solr_complex"

    criteria="Cold Fusiongava" OR "Internet Tools">
  • Searching synonyms: There are two ways to search documents that have synonymous words like 'MB', 'megabyte', 'gig', and so on:
  1. If collection is not yet created, go to:  <cf_home>/solr/multicore/template/conf/synonyms.txt This file contains some default mappings such as 'GB, gig, gigabyte, gigabytes'. Define your synonym mappings in the next row.
  2. If you want to add a synonym mapping for a collection that is already created, go to <collection_location>/conf/synonyms.txt and define your mapping.Restart the Solr server after defining mapping .

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