diff --git a/data-store/src/main/java/org/lucares/pdb/datastore/lang/CandidateGrouper.java b/data-store/src/main/java/org/lucares/pdb/datastore/lang/CandidateGrouper.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1fbd915
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data-store/src/main/java/org/lucares/pdb/datastore/lang/CandidateGrouper.java
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+package org.lucares.pdb.datastore.lang;
+
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.Arrays;
+import java.util.Collection;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.SortedSet;
+import java.util.TreeSet;
+import java.util.regex.Pattern;
+
+public class CandidateGrouper {
+	public SortedSet<String> group(final Collection<String> values, final String queryWithCaretMarker) {
+
+		final TreeSet<String> result = new TreeSet<>();
+		final int numDotsInValue = countDotsInValue(queryWithCaretMarker);
+
+		for (final String value : values) {
+			// keep everyting up to the (numDotsInValue+1)-th
+			final String[] token = value.split(Pattern.quote("."));
+			final List<String> tokenlist = new ArrayList<>(Arrays.asList(token));
+			final List<String> prefix = tokenlist.subList(0, numDotsInValue + 1);
+			String shortenedValue = String.join(".", prefix);
+			if (tokenlist.size() > numDotsInValue + 1) {
+				shortenedValue += ".";
+			}
+			result.add(shortenedValue);
+		}
+
+		return result;
+	}
+
+	private int countDotsInValue(final String queryWithCaretMarker) {
+
+		int count = 0;
+		int index = queryWithCaretMarker.indexOf(NewProposerParser.CARET_MARKER) - 1;
+		final String delimiter = " (),=!";
+
+		while (index >= 0) {
+			final char c = queryWithCaretMarker.charAt(index);
+			if (delimiter.indexOf(c) >= 0) {
+				break;
+			}
+			if (c == '.') {
+				count++;
+			}
+			index--;
+		}
+
+		return count;
+	}
+}
diff --git a/data-store/src/main/java/org/lucares/pdb/datastore/lang/NewProposerParser.java b/data-store/src/main/java/org/lucares/pdb/datastore/lang/NewProposerParser.java
index f9d8eb2..a87b956 100644
--- a/data-store/src/main/java/org/lucares/pdb/datastore/lang/NewProposerParser.java
+++ b/data-store/src/main/java/org/lucares/pdb/datastore/lang/NewProposerParser.java
@@ -167,8 +167,11 @@ public class NewProposerParser {
 			final SortedSet<String> candidateValues = normalizedExpression
 					.visit(new FindValuesForQueryCompletion(queryCompletionIndex));
 
+			final SortedSet<String> candidateValuesCutAtDots = cutAtDots(candidateValues, queryWithCaretMarker);
+
 			// translate the candidate values to proposals
-			final List<Proposal> proposals = generateProposals(queryWithCaretMarker, expression, candidateValues);
+			final List<Proposal> proposals = generateProposals(queryWithCaretMarker, expression,
+					candidateValuesCutAtDots);
 
 			return proposals;
 		} catch (final SyntaxException e) {
@@ -178,6 +181,11 @@ public class NewProposerParser {
 		}
 	}
 
+	private SortedSet<String> cutAtDots(final SortedSet<String> candidateValues, final String queryWithCaretMarker) {
+		final CandidateGrouper grouper = new CandidateGrouper();
+		return grouper.group(candidateValues, queryWithCaretMarker);
+	}
+
 	private List<Proposal> generateProposals(final String queryWithCaretMarker, final Expression expression,
 			final SortedSet<String> candidateValues) {
 		final List<Proposal> proposals = new ArrayList<>();
diff --git a/data-store/src/test/java/org/lucares/pdb/datastore/lang/CandidateGrouperTest.java b/data-store/src/test/java/org/lucares/pdb/datastore/lang/CandidateGrouperTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9f7b8cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data-store/src/test/java/org/lucares/pdb/datastore/lang/CandidateGrouperTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+package org.lucares.pdb.datastore.lang;
+
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Set;
+import java.util.SortedSet;
+
+import org.testng.Assert;
+import org.testng.annotations.DataProvider;
+import org.testng.annotations.Test;
+
+@Test
+public class CandidateGrouperTest {
+
+	@DataProvider
+	public Object[][] providerGroup() {
+		final List<Object[]> result = new ArrayList<>();
+
+		result.add(new Object[] { //
+				Set.of("aa.xx.AA.XX", "aa.yy.BB", "aa.xx.BB", "aa.xx.AA.YY"), //
+				"name = |", //
+				Set.of("aa.") });
+		result.add(new Object[] { //
+				Set.of("aa.xx.AA.XX", "aa.yy.BB", "aa.xx.BB", "aa.xx.AA.YY"), //
+				"name = a|", //
+				Set.of("aa.") });
+		result.add(new Object[] { //
+				Set.of("aa.xx.AA.XX", "aa.yy.BB", "aa.xx.BB", "aa.xx.AA.YY"), //
+				"name = aa|", //
+				Set.of("aa.") });
+		result.add(new Object[] { //
+				Set.of("aa.xx.AA.XX", "aa.yy.BB", "aa.xx.BB", "aa.xx.AA.YY"), //
+				"name = aa.|", //
+				Set.of("aa.xx.", "aa.yy.") });
+		result.add(new Object[] { //
+				Set.of("aa.xx.AA.XX", "aa.xx.BB", "aa.xx.AA.YY"), //
+				"name = aa.x|", //
+				Set.of("aa.xx.") });
+		result.add(new Object[] { //
+				Set.of("aa.xx.AA.XX", "aa.xx.BB", "aa.xx.AA.YY"), //
+				"name = aa.xx.|", //
+				Set.of("aa.xx.AA.", "aa.xx.BB") });
+		result.add(new Object[] { //
+				Set.of("aa.xx.AA.XX", "aa.xx.AA.YY"), //
+				"name = aa.xx.AA.|", //
+				Set.of("aa.xx.AA.XX", "aa.xx.AA.YY") });
+		result.add(new Object[] { //
+				Set.of("XX.YY.ZZ", "XX.YY"), //
+				"name = XX.Y|", //
+				Set.of("XX.YY.", "XX.YY") });
+
+		return result.toArray(new Object[0][]);
+	}
+
+	@Test(dataProvider = "providerGroup")
+	public void testGroup(final Set<String> values, final String queryWithCaretMarker, final Set<String> expected) {
+		final CandidateGrouper grouper = new CandidateGrouper();
+
+		final String query = queryWithCaretMarker.replace("|", NewProposerParser.CARET_MARKER);
+
+		final SortedSet<String> actual = grouper.group(values, query);
+
+		Assert.assertEquals(actual, expected);
+	}
+}