# Add search to an ASP.NET Core Razor Pages app
By [Rick Anderson](https://twitter.com/RickAndMSFT)
In this document, search capability is added to the Index page that enables searching movies by *genre* or *name*.
Update the Index page's `OnGetAsync` method with the following code:
[!code-cshtml[](../../tutorials/razor-pages/razor-pages-start/sample/RazorPagesMovie/Pages/_ViewStart.cshtml)]
[!code-csharp[](../../tutorials/razor-pages/razor-pages-start/sample/RazorPagesMovie/Pages/Movies/Index.cshtml.cs?name=snippet_1stSearch)]
The first line of the `OnGetAsync` method creates a [LINQ](/dotnet/csharp/programming-guide/concepts/linq/) query to select the movies:
```csharp
var movies = from m in _context.Movie
select m;
```
The query is *only* defined at this point, it has **not** been run against the database.
If the `searchString` parameter contains a string, the movies query is modified to filter on the search string:
[!code-csharp[](../../tutorials/razor-pages/razor-pages-start/sample/RazorPagesMovie/Pages/Movies/Index.cshtml.cs?name=snippet_SearchNull)]
The `s => s.Title.Contains()` code is a [Lambda Expression](/dotnet/csharp/programming-guide/statements-expressions-operators/lambda-expressions). Lambdas are used in method-based [LINQ](/dotnet/csharp/programming-guide/concepts/linq/) queries as arguments to standard query operator methods such as the [Where](/dotnet/csharp/programming-guide/concepts/linq/query-syntax-and-method-syntax-in-linq) method or `Contains` (used in the preceding code). LINQ queries are not executed when they're defined or when they're modified by calling a method (such as `Where`, `Contains` or `OrderBy`). Rather, query execution is deferred. That means the evaluation of an expression is delayed until its realized value is iterated over or the `ToListAsync` method is called. See [Query Execution](/dotnet/framework/data/adonet/ef/language-reference/query-execution) for more information.
**Note:** The [Contains](/dotnet/api/system.data.objects.dataclasses.entitycollection-1.contains) method is run on the database, not in the C# code. The case sensitivity on the query depends on the database and the collation. On SQL Server, `Contains` maps to [SQL LIKE](/sql/t-sql/language-elements/like-transact-sql), which is case insensitive. In SQLite, with the default collation, it's case sensitive.
Navigate to the Movies page and append a query string such as `?searchString=Ghost` to the URL (for example, `http://localhost:5000/Movies?searchString=Ghost`). The filtered movies are displayed.
If the following route template is added to the Index page, the search string can be passed as a URL segment (for example, `http://localhost:5000/Movies/ghost`).
```cshtml
@page "{searchString?}"
```
The preceding route constraint allows searching the title as route data (a URL segment) instead of as a query string value. The `?` in `"{searchString?}"` means this is an optional route parameter.
However, you can't expect users to modify the URL to search for a movie. In this step, UI is added to filter movies. If you added the route constraint `"{searchString?}"`, remove it.
Open the *Pages/Movies/Index.cshtml* file, and add the `