diff --git a/src/service/rooms/search/data.rs b/src/service/rooms/search/data.rs
index 091f190e..0e6d251a 100644
--- a/src/service/rooms/search/data.rs
+++ b/src/service/rooms/search/data.rs
@@ -10,20 +10,26 @@ pub trait Data: Send + Sync {
 	fn search_pdus<'a>(&'a self, room_id: &RoomId, search_string: &str) -> SearchPdusResult<'a>;
 }
 
+/// Splits a string into tokens used as keys in the search inverted index
+///
+/// This may be used to tokenize both message bodies (for indexing) or search
+/// queries (for querying).
+fn tokenize(body: &str) -> impl Iterator<Item = String> + '_ {
+	body.split_terminator(|c: char| !c.is_alphanumeric())
+		.filter(|s| !s.is_empty())
+		.filter(|word| word.len() <= 50)
+		.map(str::to_lowercase)
+}
+
 impl Data for KeyValueDatabase {
 	fn index_pdu(&self, shortroomid: u64, pdu_id: &[u8], message_body: &str) -> Result<()> {
-		let mut batch = message_body
-			.split_terminator(|c: char| !c.is_alphanumeric())
-			.filter(|s| !s.is_empty())
-			.filter(|word| word.len() <= 50)
-			.map(str::to_lowercase)
-			.map(|word| {
-				let mut key = shortroomid.to_be_bytes().to_vec();
-				key.extend_from_slice(word.as_bytes());
-				key.push(0xFF);
-				key.extend_from_slice(pdu_id); // TODO: currently we save the room id a second time here
-				(key, Vec::new())
-			});
+		let mut batch = tokenize(message_body).map(|word| {
+			let mut key = shortroomid.to_be_bytes().to_vec();
+			key.extend_from_slice(word.as_bytes());
+			key.push(0xFF);
+			key.extend_from_slice(pdu_id); // TODO: currently we save the room id a second time here
+			(key, Vec::new())
+		});
 
 		self.tokenids.insert_batch(&mut batch)
 	}
@@ -37,11 +43,7 @@ impl Data for KeyValueDatabase {
 			.to_be_bytes()
 			.to_vec();
 
-		let words: Vec<_> = search_string
-			.split_terminator(|c: char| !c.is_alphanumeric())
-			.filter(|s| !s.is_empty())
-			.map(str::to_lowercase)
-			.collect();
+		let words: Vec<_> = tokenize(search_string).collect();
 
 		let iterators = words.clone().into_iter().map(move |word| {
 			let mut prefix2 = prefix.clone();