> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.launchboard.app/cxd/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.launchboard.app/cxd/code-chatbot-1/code-mods/searching-a-database.md).
# Searching a Database
{% hint style="info" %}
This example uses the same database described in the example for [Connecting a Database Using Google Sheets](https://docs.idew.org/code-chatbot/code-mods/connecting-a-database-using-google-sheets), which has column names *id, term, definition, and keywords*. Your database will likely have different column names.
{% endhint %}
## 1. Create the Rivescript Trigger
Create a trigger in your chatbot script like the one below that will respond to the user typing "search" followed by a word. The response will begin with "Searching..." to provide feedback to the user, then call a `searchTerms()` function that we will define next.
```javascript
+ search *
- Searching... searchTerms
```
## 2. Create the "searchTerms" Function to Process the Search
The function below will process the search and return HTML about the results.
{% code lineNumbers="true" %}
```javascript
> object searchTerms javascript
var filtered = chatbot.dbFilter2(chatbot.db, "term", args); //used to be args[0]
var terms = filtered.map(function(row) {
return `${row.term}: ${row.definition}
`;
});
var reply = "Didn't find any matches.";
if (terms.length) reply = "Here is what I found.
" + terms.join(" ");
chatbot.postReply(reply, 2000);
return '';
< object
```
{% endcode %}
Let's step through what is happening above...
**Line 2** uses the `chatbot.dbFilter2()` function. Notice there are 3 arguments used by the function.\
\- `chatbot.db` is the database to be searched.\
\- `"term"` is the column name to be searched. In this case we will search each term name.\
\- `args` represents the text the user has typed in for the search.\
The variable `filtered` now contains the matches of our search.
**Lines 3-5** takes each matched item and creates HTML for the term and definition that will be displayed to the user.
**Line 6** defines a variable for our reply string. We start with "Didn't find any matches" as a default.
**Line 7** modifies our reply with the HTML of terms and definitions if there were any matches.
**Line 8** uses the chatbot.postReply() function to display the reply after 2 seconds.
**Line 9** simply returns an empty string so that you don't get an `undefined` showing up in your chatbot in certain cases. The reply text is taken care of in the lines above.
---
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