-exact parameter with custom fields is not working

Question

I cannot get the -exact parameter to work in a search string using Super Search 2.2.3 and EE 2.9.2.

I have a custom field named doctors_services and I've tried this search query:

/search/doctors/search&channel=doctors&doctors_services=Primary%20Care

This works - it returns results for Primary Care. However, this search also returns other services with "Care" in the name - eg. "Wound Care"

According to the documentation from Solspace (found here: https://solspace.com/docs/super_search/search_syntax/#custom_fields), I should be able to pass an -exact parameter in the string like this:

/search/doctors/search&channel=doctors&doctors_services-exact=Primary%20Care

This returns zero results. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. I feel like this is a bug?

Answer 1

I answered my question. You cannot do exact searches on a Playa field: https://solspace.com/docs/super_search/third_party_support/#pt_playa

Answer 2

Can you try with a + instead of %20? Just in case it's an encoding issue here wit hthe exact syntax?

Your parameters look correct, bear in mind also that exact matches the entire field, not just the text supplied, so if you have leading or training characters (even spaces) the loose search will match, the exact one won't...