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Custom word breakers in SharePoint

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Word breaking is one of the key Natural Language Processing (NLP) features that enable search and improve search results (or recall). Word breakers split a stream of text into individual words or tokens on which you can base additional language processing. Word breakers are language-specific. In addition to built-in word breakers, Search in SharePoint enables the use of custom word breakers so that users can tune word breaking behavior according to their needs. See Supported languages for word breaker customizations in SharePoint for a list languages supported for word breaker customization.

For information on how to write a word breaker refer to the following articles

How to switch to a custom word breaker in SharePoint

Caution

When you replace existing word breakers, you modify the registry at your own risk. Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall the operating system. Microsoft cannot ensure that these problems can be solved. Switching to a different word breaker might also cause serious problems during indexing and querying. Before you modify the registry, back up the registry and ensure that you know how to restore the registry if a problem occurs.

Take the following steps to replace the existing word breaker with a custom word breaker or replace the existing word breaker with a word breaker in another language.

  1. Open the Registry Editor, as follows:

  2. Choose Start, and then choose Run.

  3. In the Open dialog box, type Regedit, and then choose OK.

  4. In Registry Editor, select the following registry subkey:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\15.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\LanguageResources\Default\ language from the list below

  5. In the right pane, open the shortcut menu for the WBDLLPathOverride registry value, and then choose Modify.

  6. In the Edit String dialog box, in the Value data box, type the path to your custom word breaker DLL, and then choose OK. The new DLL should be located in the same path as the existing DLL that is being replaced.

  7. In the right pane, open the shortcut menu for the WBreakerClass registry value, and then choose Modify.

  8. In the Edit String dialog box, in the Value data box, type the class ID of your custom word breaker, and then choose OK

    Restart the SharePoint Search Host Controller and SharePoint.

  9. Do a full re-crawl.

Supported languages for word breaker customizations in SharePoint

The following languages are supported for word breaker customization:

  • Arabic
  • Bengali
  • Bulgarian
  • Catalan
  • Chinese (People's Republic of China)
  • Chinese (Taiwan)
  • Croatian
  • Czech
  • Danish
  • Dutch (Dutch)
  • English (United States)
  • Estonian
  • Finnish
  • French (Standard)
  • German (Standard)
  • Greek
  • Gujarati
  • Hebrew
  • Hindi
  • Hungarian
  • Icelandic
  • Indonesian
  • Italian (Default)
  • Japanese
  • Kannada
  • Kazakh
  • Korean
  • Latvian
  • Lithuanian
  • Malay
  • Malayalam
  • Marathi
  • Norwegian
  • Polish
  • Portuguese (Portuguese)
  • Punjabi
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Serbian (Cyrillic)
  • Slovak
  • Slovenian
  • Spanish (Modern Sort)
  • Swedish
  • Tamil
  • Telugu
  • Thai
  • Ukrainian
  • Urdu
  • Vietnamese

See also