# Using single character 'a' as a search term **URL:** \ **Category:** Ferret\ **Created:** [September 23, 2008, 9:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-single-character-a-as-a-search-term/149282 "2008-09-23T09:39:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![asmodi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@asmodi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/asmodi)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 9:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-single-character-a-as-a-search-term/149282/1 "2008-09-23T09:39:07Z")
Hi all, This is a weird problem that I will try to explain in my own way. I construct my search query by including all possible indexed fields and using the wildcard if the user hasn’t provided data for a field. Eg if the indexed fields are “surname”, “first\_name” and “second\_name” and the user has only provided data in the surname and first\_name fields the query would be: “surname:Smith AND first\_name:John AND second\_name:\*” This seems to work fine unless I use a single character ‘a’ exclusively in any, some or all of the fields. So say I enter an ‘a’ in surname with the query being: “surname:a AND first\_name:\* AND second\_name:\*” I get a result containing every record from my data set. If for example I use any other character (or multiple characters) in the surname field such as: “surname:b AND first\_name:\* AND second\_name:\*” I get no results, which I assume is correct because I have no people in my data set with a surname of “b”. This same problem applies to any of the indexed fields. Here’s some more examples: “surname:a AND first\_name:a AND second\_name:a” gives every record “surname:a AND first\_name:a AND second\_name:\*” gives every record “surname:a AND first\_name:b AND second\_name:\*” gives no records which I expect “surname:a” gives no records which I expect Any idea’s what might be going on here?