1. A machine implemented method of processing data, the method comprising: receiving an input which represents a search query, the search query comprising a single prefix character followed by at least one word and further includes a parameter; automatically interpreting the search query, the interpreting comprising linking the single prefix character followed by at least one word and the parameter according to a logical combination definition, wherein the logical combination definition is at least partly based on a data type of the parameter; determining at least one beginning of a word in the input, wherein the single prefix character is considered a part of the at least one word and wherein the beginning of a word in the input corresponds to a location of the single prefix character in the input; performing, by a data processing system in response to the input, a prefix matching search through indexed content of a plurality of files and through metadata from the plurality of files created by at least one software application wherein the type of information in metadata for files of a first type differs from the type of information in metadata for files of a second type and wherein matching metadata or content begins at the beginning of the word and includes the single prefix character followed by the at least one word.