Advanced Search Syntax

You can search for your content in the Content Browser using advanced search operators. These operators can refine your search, making it easier for you to find what you need. You can also use them to search for key-value pairs from Asset metadata, and access special key values.

The following table shows all the available operators:

Special Keys

Most keys available for searching come from Asset metadata that was extracted from the Asset registry. However, there are several special keys that exist for all Asset types. These special keys only support Equal or NotEqual comparison operators.

Strings

Strings can either be quoted (single or double) or not quoted. Quoted strings can contain nested quotes; however, you must use a backslash ( \ ) to exit any nested quotes. The main difference between using unquoted and quoted strings is that quoted strings can use spaces and special characters in search terms. By default, they will perform partial string matches unless a TextCmpExact or TextCmpAnchor operator is used to modify the behavior.

Below are some examples using single and double quotes and backslashes:

"Foo\"bar"  ->  Foo"bar
'Foo\'bar'  ->  Foo'bar
"Foo\'bar"  ->  Foo'bar
'Foo\"bar'  ->  Foo"bar
"Foo\\bar"  ->  Foo\bar
'Foo\\bar'  ->  Foo\bar

Asset Metadata

Hovering over an Asset's name in the Content Browser will display its metadata.

Different Assets may list different metadata specific to that type, so Static Meshes would be different than a Skeletal Mesh.

You can use any type of metadata to search for Assets with that characteristic. Your search should use the following syntax:

[Metadata Name] [Operator] [String or Numeric Value] 

For example:

Triangles>=10500

Type==Skeletal

UVChannels>2 

CollisionPrims!=0

Basic Search Example

A basic search takes a metadata object and uses an Operator to test against a string or value. 

For example:

• To search for any Asset that has more than 1500 triangles, you would use Triangles>1500.

• To search for all Blueprint Assets, you would use Type==Blueprint.

Advanced Search Examples

By using the AND, OR, and NOT operators, you can test against multiple search operations at once. For example, to search for any Asset that is using a Translucent Material that is using the Default Lit Shading Model, you would use the following syntax:

BlendMode==Translucent AND ShadingModel==DefaultLit

By using the AND operator, both operations testing the Blend Mode and Shading Model must evaluate to true to display any results.

When you use the OR operator, either operation can independently evaluate to true to display its result. For example,not every Material using a Translucent Blend Mode will be using Default Lit. For complex advanced searches, Operators of the same type always combine together. Parentheses can resolve the ambiguity when you start using different operator types. For example, we can perform two searches and then evaluate them to display results. The first operation will evaluate any Material that is Translucent and Default Lit:

BlendMode==Translucent AND ShadingModel==DefaultLit

The second operation will evaluate any Material that is a Deferred Decal and that doesn't use Scene Color:

MaterialDomain==DeferredDecal AND HasSceneColor==False</span>

You can use parentheses to evaluate the results of both of these searches, like so:

(BlendMode==Translucent AND ShadingModel==DefaultLit) OR (MaterialDomain==DeferredDecal AND HasSceneColor==False)

By using the OR operator between the parentheticals, the results will evaluate each parenthetical on its own and display results that return true for either one. If you were to use the AND operator, all four operations would have to return True to display any results.