---
title: Reserved characters
slug: cms-12/docs/reserved-characters
docTags: 
createdAt: 2026-08-10T15:55:59.000Z
---

For any search string, Optimizely Search & Navigation reserves the following characters:

`! + - = ^ " ~ * ? : && || < > ( ) { } [ ] / \`

Escape any of those characters in a query to prevent errors. For example, the string `John+Doe` is escaped to `John\+Doe`.

Optimizely Search & Navigation reserves the following character combinations for any search string. You cannot search for them.

`AXXZ`, `AXZY`, `AZXY`,  `AZZX`,`DZZJ`