Current Versions: Stable v11.7.0, Preview v11.8.0-beta.1
Environment Variables
SEARCH_ENDPOINT=https://<search-service>.search.windows.net
SEARCH_INDEX_NAME=<index-name>
# For API key auth (not recommended for production)
SEARCH_API_KEY=<api-key>
Authentication
DefaultAzureCredential (preferred):
using Azure.Identity;
using Azure.Search.Documents;
var credential = new DefaultAzureCredential();
var client = new SearchClient(
new Uri(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SEARCH_ENDPOINT")),
Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SEARCH_INDEX_NAME"),
credential);
API Key:
using Azure;
using Azure.Search.Documents;
var credential = new AzureKeyCredential(
Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SEARCH_API_KEY"));
var client = new SearchClient(
new Uri(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SEARCH_ENDPOINT")),
Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SEARCH_INDEX_NAME"),
credential);
Client Selection
Client
Purpose
SearchClient
Query indexes, upload/update/delete documents
SearchIndexClient
Create/manage indexes, synonym maps
SearchIndexerClient
Manage indexers, skillsets, data sources
Index Creation
Using FieldBuilder (Recommended)
using Azure.Search.Documents.Indexes;
using Azure.Search.Documents.Indexes.Models;
// Define model with attributes
public class Hotel
{
[SimpleField(IsKey = true, IsFilterable = true)]
public string HotelId { get; set; }
[SearchableField(IsSortable = true)]
public string HotelName { get; set; }
[SearchableField(AnalyzerName = LexicalAnalyzerName.EnLucene)]
public string Description { get; set; }
[SimpleField(IsFilterable = true, IsSortable = true, IsFacetable = true)]
public double? Rating { get; set; }
[VectorSearchField(VectorSearchDimensions = 1536, VectorSearchProfileName = "vector-profile")]
public ReadOnlyMemory<float>? DescriptionVector { get; set; }
}
// Create index
var indexClient = new SearchIndexClient(endpoint, credential);
var fieldBuilder = new FieldBuilder();
var fields = fieldBuilder.Build(typeof(Hotel));
var index = new SearchIndex("hotels")
{
Fields = fields,
VectorSearch = new VectorSearch
{
Profiles = { new VectorSearchProfile("vector-profile", "hnsw-algo") },
Algorithms = { new HnswAlgorithmConfiguration("hnsw-algo") }
}
};
await indexClient.CreateOrUpdateIndexAsync(index);
Manual Field Definition
var index = new SearchIndex("hotels")
{
Fields =
{
new SimpleField("hotelId", SearchFieldDataType.String) { IsKey = true, IsFilterable = true },
new SearchableField("hotelName") { IsSortable = true },
new SearchableField("description") { AnalyzerName = LexicalAnalyzerName.EnLucene },
new SimpleField("rating", SearchFieldDataType.Double) { IsFilterable = true, IsSortable = true },
new SearchField("descriptionVector", SearchFieldDataType.Collection(SearchFieldDataType.Single))
{
VectorSearchDimensions = 1536,
VectorSearchProfileName = "vector-profile"
}
}
};
Document Operations
var searchClient = new SearchClient(endpoint, indexName, credential);
// Upload (add new)
var hotels = new[] { new Hotel { HotelId = "1", HotelName = "Hotel A" } };
await searchClient.UploadDocumentsAsync(hotels);
// Merge (update existing)
await searchClient.MergeDocumentsAsync(hotels);
// Merge or Upload (upsert)
await searchClient.MergeOrUploadDocumentsAsync(hotels);
// Delete
await searchClient.DeleteDocumentsAsync("hotelId", new[] { "1", "2" });
// Batch operations
var batch = IndexDocumentsBatch.Create(
IndexDocumentsAction.Upload(hotel1),
IndexDocumentsAction.Merge(hotel2),
IndexDocumentsAction.Delete(hotel3));
await searchClient.IndexDocumentsAsync(batch);