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Search query

KQL with every option

Run any keyword query against your tenant's search index with every option SharePoint's own search takes: the query template, a result source, the properties to return, sorting, refiners and refinement filters, and each on or off switch. The exact request is shown before it is sent, queries can be saved and run again, and results go to Excel.

Reads only. Nothing in SharePoint is changed.
On this page What it tells you How it runs How it works What you need What it will not do Read next

What it tells you

  • Is this content in the search index at all, and what does the index hold for it?
  • How many documents of a type, or changed since a date, does search know about?
  • What does a result source or a query rule do to a query? The page shows the query SharePoint actually ran.
  • Which refiner values does a set of results have, and how many in each?

How it runs

  1. Sign in. One sign-in when you click the tile. Any of the three credentials works; Item search properties uses the same one.
  2. Write the query. Query text in KQL, such as contentclass:STS_ListItem_DocumentLibrary. Limit to a site adds a Path restriction for you.
  3. Set options. Result source, rows per page, properties to return, sort rows, refiners and refinement filters (one per line). Each switch is Default, On or Off; Default is not sent.
  4. Run search. Results this account can see, with the total and how long it took. Click a refiner value to add it as a filter.
  5. Follow up. Open a result, copy its address, or ask Why is this here? to see every property the index holds for it. Export to Excel for this page or every page.

How it works

Each query is a single request, sent with your sign-in exactly as the request panel shows it. Options left at Default are not sent, so SharePoint applies its own. The title, the address and the index's own ids are always asked for alongside the properties you list, so every result can be opened and looked up. Date tokens and query variables are sent as they are, and SharePoint works out their values.

Results are what the index returns to this account after SharePoint trims them by permission, so the header counts what this account can see, and an empty result is never presented as proof that content is missing. Clicking a refiner value adds it as a new line of refinement filters for the next request; nothing is filtered on this computer.

Export all pages asks for page after page, up to Excel's row limit, and stops and says where if SharePoint returns an empty page before the total it estimated, or when you press Stop. Saved queries are kept in one file on this computer; a file that cannot be read is set aside rather than saved over. Nothing on this page changes SharePoint.

What you need

  • Read access to the content you expect to see. Search results are trimmed to the signed-in account, so an administrator and a member can get different answers to the same query.

What it will not do

  • A result that is missing is not proof the content is missing from the index: it may be trimmed from this account by permissions.
  • On a certificate, results are what the app's Sites permission covers, not what any person sees, and people results may be empty.
  • Limit to a site is a Path restriction, which matches by prefix: /sites/Team also matches /sites/Team2.
  • FQL in the query text is not available on this route; refinement filters take FQL.
  • SharePoint returns at most 500 rows a request. Export all pages reads page after page and says in the workbook if SharePoint stopped returning rows before the total it estimated.
  • Date tokens such as {Today-7} are sent as they are; SharePoint works out the date.

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