How to: Search for a Phrase in the Body of Items in a Folder

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This example searches for the string "office" in the Body of items in the Inbox.

Example

This code sample uses a DAV Searching and Locating (DASL) syntax to specify a query. To construct the filter, the code sample first checks if Instant Search is enabled in the default store to determine whether to use the ci_phrasematch keyword for an exact phrase match of "office" in the item body, or the like keyword to match any occurrence of "office" as an exact string or a substring in the item body. The sample then applies the filter to the GetTable method on the Inbox and obtains the results in a Table object. The code sample then displays the subject of each of the returned items in the Table.

The code sample specifies the Body property by using the namespace representation urn:schemas:httpmail:textdescription.

The syntax for using the ci_phrasematch keyword is:

<PropertySchemaName> ci_phrasematch <ComparisonString>

The syntax for using the like keyword for prefix matching is:

<PropertySchemaName> like <Token>%

The syntax for using the like keyword for any substring matching is:

<PropertySchemaName> like %<Token>%

If you use Microsoft Visual Studio to test this code sample, you must first add a reference to the Microsoft Outlook 12.0 Object Library component and specify the Outlook variable when you import the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook namespace. The Imports or using statements must not occur right before the functions in the Code section but must be added before the public Class declaration. The following lines of code show how to do the import and assignment in Visual Basic and in C#:

Imports Outlook = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook

using Outlook = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook;

Private Sub DemoSearchBody()
    Dim filter As String
    If (Application.Session.DefaultStore.IsInstantSearchEnabled) Then
        filter = "@SQL=" & Chr(34) _
            & "urn:schemas:httpmail:textdescription" & Chr(34) _
            & " ci_phrasematch 'office'"
    Else
        filter = "@SQL=" & Chr(34) _
            & "urn:schemas:httpmail:textdescription" & Chr(34) _
            & " like '%office%'"
    End If
    Dim table As Outlook.Table = _
        Application.Session.GetDefaultFolder( _
        Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderInbox).GetTable( _
        filter, Outlook.OlTableContents.olUserItems)
    While Not (table.EndOfTable)
        Dim row As Outlook.Row = table.GetNextRow()
        Debug.WriteLine(row("Subject"))
    End While
End Sub

private void DemoSearchBody()
{
    string filter;
    if (Application.Session.DefaultStore.IsInstantSearchEnabled)
    {
        filter = "@SQL=" + "\""
            + "urn:schemas:httpmail:textdescription" + "\""
            + " ci_phrasematch 'office'";
    }
    else
    {
        filter = "@SQL=" + "\""
            + "urn:schemas:httpmail:textdescription" + "\""
            + " like '%office%'";
    }
    Outlook.Table table = Application.Session.GetDefaultFolder(
        Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderInbox).GetTable(
        filter, Outlook.OlTableContents.olUserItems);
    while (!table.EndOfTable)
    {
        Outlook.Row row = table.GetNextRow();
        Debug.WriteLine(row["Subject"]);
    }
}