<p>Without knowing more specifics, Craft will "normalize" search keywords before putting them into the search index table in the database, and one of the steps in the normalization process is to remove punctuation, which is why searching for punctuation doesn't work.</p>

<p>You can see the whole normalization process here: <a href="https://github.com/craftcms/cms/blob/develop/src/helpers/Search.php#L41-L81" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://github.com/craftcms/cms/blob/develop/src/helpers/Search.php#L41-L81</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-15T05:21:59.303Z
2019-11-15T05:21:59.303Z
Brad Bell
<p>I have implemented search in Craft 3, but it returns wrong result when I enter some special characters like @#!. Is there a way to prevent it?</p>

<craft3>
Search return wrong result with special character like @#! in Craft 3
# Search return wrong result with special character like @#! in Craft 3

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-11-13)

I have implemented search in Craft 3, but it returns wrong result when I enter some special characters like @#!. Is there a way to prevent it?

**Tags:** craft3

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2019-11-15. Score: 1

Without knowing more specifics, Craft will "normalize" search keywords before putting them into the search index table in the database, and one of the steps in the normalization process is to remove punctuation, which is why searching for punctuation doesn't work.

You can see the whole normalization process here: <https://github.com/craftcms/cms/blob/develop/src/helpers/Search.php#L41-L81>


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