Category search not working as expected?

i am trying to right a plugin, part of that plugin it needs to search to see if there is a category with a specific name, and it does cant find it even though it is there.

i am using the “get_categories()” to list all categories, but it is not listing all the categories, instead it outputs:
Array ( [4] => stdClass Object ( [term_id] => 1 [name] => Uncategorized [slug] => uncategorized [term_group] => 0 [term_taxonomy_id] => 1 [taxonomy] => category [description] => [parent] => 0 [count] => 1 [cat_ID] => 1 [category_count] => 1 [category_description] => [cat_name] => Uncategorized [category_nicename] => uncategorized [category_parent] => 0 ) )

now, when in wp-admin and under categories, it shows the categories as there.

one of the categories is called: “Coke, Coal & Natural Gas”, now if i do a search for that category, it says no items found…

if i search for: “Coke, Coal & ” it works, but not if i search for “Coke, Coal & N”

is this a bug? is it intended? can anyone point me in the right direction?

[Moderator Note: No bumping. If it’s so urgent that you cannot wait longer than 2 hours, consider hiring someone.]