[Alexander Batzios] ... Where searchField is returned as searchField:tokens. So far so good. I want to put % in front, and after every keyword. So I try something like: FirstNameMI like <dtml-sqlvar expr='%'+sequence-item+'%' type="string"> However, because now I use an assignment operator for an expression, Zope takes sequence-item as two separate things, sequence minus item. Is there a way to work around this? I tried everything I could think of, but still the same. I would like to avoid having to use a simple dtml-var because I read in the docs that it's better for security this way (e.g. someone can't write DELETE * FROM tableName in the query). [Tom P] Use _['sequence-item'], or %dtml-sequence-item; (any DTML variable can be referred to in this way, not just sequence-item). You also want to use double quotes around the entire expression; <dtml-var expr="'%'+_['sequence-item']+'%'" type="string"> Tom P