Creating an Advanced Search

Open the Advanced Search window using the button at the top of the application next to the search box.

Create the rules for your advanced search.

In the Field Alias field, select the student record field that contains the data to evaluate for this rule.
If you don't know the specific field alias, begin typing the field name and the list will narrow.
Note: Field aliases are written to represent the section within the student record they originate from followed by a period and then the field name. For example, if you want the First Name field from the ISIR Student screen, you look for ISIRStudent.FirstName. While building your query, you can enter any part of the alias and the field will list options with the information given. Continuing with the previous example, you can enter 'name' and the list will generate several options that have 'name' in it, including ISIRStudent.FirstName.
Specify the type of comparison to make between the initial field alias and the corresponding field or value selected in the Comparison field.
Like in a mathematical equation, the comparison allows you to describe the logical relationship between the data within each rule.
Depending on the type of data being compared, different comparison options will be available. In addition to standard mathematical operations such as 'equal to' or 'greater than', the following options are also available for certain fields:
- Any in List: This option allows you to add multiple values to the rule. For example, if you want to add a condition to your selection set to include students who have tracking statuses in Ready for Packaging and Ready for Disbursement, you would select the Any in List option, then select those values.
- Not in List: This option does the opposite of Any in List and allows you to create a rule that searches for the absence of multiple values. In the previous example of student tracking status, if you selected Not in List, you would capture all students who have a tracking status other than Ready for Packaging and Ready for Disbursement.
- Is Blank: This option allows you to create a rule that searches for a blank value in a field. For example, if you wanted to find all students who did not provide their housing status on the ISIR, you could create a rule that searches for that condition using the Is Blank comparison.
- Is Not Blank: This option does the opposite of Is Blank and allows you to create a rule that searches any record containing a value in that field. So if you wanted to create a selection set that includes all students who provided a housing status on their ISIR, you could create a rule that searches for that condition using the Is Not Blank comparison.
Select if you want to compare to the data in another field in the student record, to a specific value, or to a relative date.
Enter the field, value, or relative date that you want to compare against.
Note: When creating a rule in an advanced search using a field alias with award year-specific code set values, choose the appropriate award year from the Code Set list (1) and the values available to choose within that award year will appear as options in the Field/Value list (2) as seen in the image below:
If applicable, select Add Rule to continue to add conditions to your advanced search, repeating the steps above to create your criteria.
Tip: If you decide you want to remove a rule in your search, click the X at the end of the rule to remove. You can also rearrange rules by selecting and holding the Move icon and dragging the rule to another spot within the search.
Tip: As you create your advanced search, you can see the actual query being generated below the selection fields. In the example above the query is currently ISIRParent.AdjustedGrossIncome < 50000 AND ISIRCalculated.AwardYear == "2023-2024". This can be helpful to validate complex queries, especially those using nested groups.

If needed to further refine your search, organize your rules into groups.

Select Add group to add a group within your search. Your group will connect to the rules above and below it using the selected connector for that section.
When creating multiple rules in selection sets, you can indicate how each rule or group is connected from the options at the top portion of the advanced search window:
- Connecting two rules with And indicates that they must both be satisfied in order for a student to qualify for the population.
- Connecting two rules with Or indicates that at least one rule must be satisfied but both are not required.
- Selecting the Not qualifier reverses the parameters of the associated rule or group.
Using the same steps as stated above, build out your nested search clause
Continue to add additional rules and/or groups to your advanced search until you have the exact query you are looking for.

Example: Adding rules and groups to an advanced search

Perhaps you want to create an advanced search that identifies all students who are both independent and legal residents of Virginia. Both of those conditions (independent status and Virginia residency) would be their own rules in the advanced search.

Note that because we’re searching for year-specific data points - in this case, values from the ISIR file - we’ve also added a rule to specific the associated award year. For more information, see Year-Specific Selection Sets.

You can also group rules in your advanced search by selecting Add Group. Groups are nested searches within an advanced search that allow you to group rules together, similar to how parentheses function in a mathematical equation. The rules inside the group are evaluated first without regard to the rules outside the group.

Expanding on the previous example, perhaps you want to create an advanced search that identifies all students who are either independent and legal residents of Virginia, or dependent with parents who are legal residents of Virginia. To achieve this using grouping, you would create two groups within the advanced search to identify those two cohorts of students.

Note that the And connector (1) is used within both groups because you are searching for students who meet both conditions within those groups. However, because you are identifying students who fall into either group, the Or connector (2) is used to connect the two groups.

Additionally, to ensure you are using the correct connectors, you can visually check the connection by looking at the brackets in the user interface, or you can read through the corresponding logic statement shown at the bottom of the advanced search (3).

Choose whether to preview your results, save as a selection set, or return the results.

While building your advanced search, you can optionally preview the population of students in the advanced search.
- Select Preview Results to preview the population of students returned in the search.
You can choose to create a Selection Set if you want to save your search future use.
- Select Save as Selection Set to open the dialog box that allows you to name and provide a description for the selection set you are creating.
- Select Save.
  A success message is displayed in the upper right portion of the page letting you know the selection set has been created.
  This selection set is now displayed in the list of selection sets in System Administration > Tools > Selection Sets as well as in the Selection Sets list next to the student search at the top of the application:
When you’re ready to run your search, select Return Results.
This closes the Advanced Search window and displays the student records that match your search in the Search Results menu to the left of the student record workspace. You can select a student record from this list to view it in the workspace.
Tip: The Advanced Search window will remember your last query within the same session, so if you select Return Results and then realize you need to adjust the parameters, you can select Advanced Search again to reopen the window to where you last left off, allowing you to continue editing your query.