We sure can. Fields that permit an .exact suffix have been indexed in two forms in the openFDA database (which is Elasticsearch). A field without the .exact suffix has been tokenized to allow flexible partial searches. For example, consider the following query: https://api.fda.gov/drug/ndc.json?search=brand_name:Advil&limit=1000. This will return all NDC drugs that contain Advil within their brand name, such as CHILDRENS ADVIL,ADVIL MIGRAINE, and so on.

Now try adding the suffix as follows: https://api.fda.gov/drug/ndc.json?search=brand_name.exact:Advil&limit=1000. You will see fewer results, and each result will have its brand_name exactly that: Advil. Exact value match is now required.

Hope this makes sense.

We sure can. Fields that permit an .exact suffix have been indexed in two forms in the openFDA database (which uses Elasticsearch). A field without the .exact suffix has been tokenized to allow flexible partial searches. For example, consider the following query: https://api.fda.gov/drug/ndc.json?search=brand_name:Advil&limit=1000. This will return all NDC drugs that contain Advil within their brand name, such as CHILDRENS ADVIL,ADVIL MIGRAINE, and so on.

Now try adding the suffix as follows: https://api.fda.gov/drug/ndc.json?search=brand_name.exact:Advil&limit=1000. You will see fewer results, and each result will have its brand_name exactly that: Advil. Exact value match is now required.

Hope this makes sense.