Text prompt for multiple values, use in filter

[xeric080]

I have a report consisting of financial transactions. I'd like to allow the user to enter several values, and then filter the report to return results where any of those values are contained in the [Description] field.

I'd like to have the user type them into a text box. I've tried a single textbox with the user entering words with a delimiter, such as 'word1;word2;word3'. I've also tried a multi-select enabled textbox, and multiple text boxes.

I thought the simplest would be to have 4 textboxes. The problem I run into is if I use multiple text boxes, I can't figure out how to make the filter work but also not have all text boxes as required. I set them as not required on the prompt page, but the filters I try make them required anyway.

My objective is to allow the user to enter up to 4 keywords to search for in the description field. If they only enter 2, I want to only return results containing one of those 2 and disregard the other 2 empty text boxes.

Is this possible? Any help is appreciated!

Using Cognos 11.2.4 and MS SQL Server database.

[dougp]

The textbox prompt has a multi-line property