A staff member typed an order number on a phone with a Persian or Urdu keyboard; why can't search find it when the number looks right?
Because Persian and Urdu keyboards type Persian digits such as ۴۵۶, which resemble the Arabic-Indic ٤٥٦ but are different Unicode characters, so search treats them as another number. The fix is to bring every style to one form with the digit converter, and the number then matches everywhere.
Two numbers that look alike and are not
Unicode has two sets of digits that mirror each other. The first is Arabic-Indic, ٠ to ٩, which an ordinary Arabic keyboard types. The second is Extended Arabic-Indic, ۰ to ۹, which Persian and Urdu keyboards type. Most of the digits are near-identical in shape; the visible difference is in four, five and six, written ۴, ۵ and ۶ in Persian and ٤, ٥ and ٦ in Arabic.
When a system searches for an order number it compares characters one by one, not how they look on screen. So ۴۵۶, ٤٥٦ and 456 are three completely different strings to it, even though all of them mean the same number. The staff member sees a correct number in front of them and cannot understand why the order does not come up.
When this happens in a Gulf store
- A staff member or delivery driver uses a phone set to Persian or Urdu and types order notes on it.
- A customer copies their order number from a message, then retypes it on a different keyboard.
- A file arrives from a supplier or partner in a country where Persian digits are the norm.
A worked example
Here is a line with the same number twice, once in Persian digits and once in Arabic-Indic:
طلب رقم ۴۵۶ و ٤٥٦
Converted to Western digits, with every style left ticked as a source:
طلب رقم 456 و 456
The tool converted 6 digits: 3 from Persian and 3 from Arabic-Indic. The per-style counter is what exposes the problem. If a text you thought was purely Arabic shows anything other than zero next to Persian, you have found why the search failed.
How to fix it
- Copy the order number or the staff note exactly as written, or the whole number column from your sheet.
- Open the Arabic/Persian/Western digit converter, paste it, and choose the style your system searches in, which is usually Western.
- Make sure Persian and Arabic-Indic are both ticked under 'Styles to convert'.
- Look at the Persian counter to confirm it was the cause, then copy the unified number and search again.
If you want to see for yourself where the two strings differ before converting, put both numbers into Text comparison. It marks the digits that differ even though they look the same on screen.
Stop it coming back
Converting repairs the text you have; it does not change the staff member's keyboard. If the problem keeps returning, agree with the team on one digit style for everything that gets saved, and convert files that come in from outside before they enter your system, not after a search has already failed.
Common questions
Is ۴ worth something different from ٤?
No, both are four. Only the encoding differs, which is why conversion fixes it without changing any value.
Does the tool also convert Devanagari or Bengali digits?
No. It works on three styles only: Western, Arabic-Indic and Persian.
Should I convert the whole note or just the number?
Either. Letters are never changed, so you can paste the full note and take the number from the result.