ISearchQueryHelper::GenerateSQLFromUserQuery method (searchapi.h)

Article
10/13/2021

Generates a Structured Query Language (SQL) query based on a client-supplied query string expressed in either Advanced Query Syntax (AQS) or Natural Query Syntax (NQS).

Syntax

HRESULT GenerateSQLFromUserQuery(
  [in]          LPCWSTR pszQuery,
  [out, retval] LPWSTR  *ppszSQL
);

Parameters

[in] pszQuery

Type: LPCWSTR

A pointer to a null-terminated Unicode string containing a query in AQS or NQS.

[out, retval] ppszSQL

Type: LPWSTR*

Receives the address of a pointer to a SQL query string based on the query in the pszQuery parameter.

Return value

Type: HRESULT

If this method succeeds, it returns S_OK. Otherwise, it returns an HRESULT error code.

Remarks

This method generates SQL in the following form:

SELECT &lt;QuerySelectColumns&gt; FROM &lt;CatalogName that created query helper&gt;
    WHERE &lt;Result of interpreting the User query passed into this function according to QuerySyntax&gt;
          [ AND|OR &lt;QueryWhereRestrictions&gt;]

The SQL generation uses the settings specified in ISearchQueryHelper::put_QueryTermExpansion, ISearchQueryHelper::put_QueryContentProperties, and ISearchQueryHelper::put_QueryContentLocale.

ISearchQueryHelper::GenerateSQLFromUserQuery uses regional locale settings. However, ISearchQueryHelper does not use the regional locale settings. As a result, there are inconsistencies in the SQL returned from ISearchQueryHelper::GenerateSQLFromUserQuery and ISearchQueryHelper for region specific settings such as date formats. For example, if you set the locale for date/time to something other than the system locale, such as en-CA if the system locale is en-US, and enter Toybox -m -i "date:3/7/2008" -Y -s, the SQL returned will differ. The SQL from ISearchQueryHelper::GenerateSQLFromUserQuery will have parsed 3/7/2008 according to en-CA (seeking items dated 3rd of July, 2008) while the SQL from ISearchQueryHelper will have parsed 3/7/2008 according to en-US (seeking items dated 7th of March, 2008).

Checkout the DSearch code sample to see how to create a class for a static console application to query Windows Search using the Microsoft.Search.Interop assembly for ISearchQueryHelper.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows XP with SP2, Windows Vista [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server	Windows Server 2003 with SP1 [desktop apps only]
Target Platform	Windows
Header	searchapi.h
Redistributable	Windows Desktop Search (WDS) 3.0