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InfoTrac
Databases: Wildcards/Truncation Symbols
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Scope
- Use wildcards, which also
function as truncation symbols, to create searches where there are
unknown characters, multiple spellings or various endings.
Question Mark
Wildcard (?)
- This wildcard is represented by a
question mark (?).
- Each question mark represents
a single character.
- To use the wildcard, enter the
desired search terms and replace each unknown character with a
"?".
- InfoTrac will find all citations
of that word with the "?"
replaced by a letter.
- Example
- Type
ne?t
to find:
- All citations containing
"neat", "nest" or "next".
- InfoTrac will not find
"net" because the wildcard replaces a single character.
Exclamation Mark
Wildcard (!)
- This wildcard is represented by a
exclamation mark (!).
- The exclamation mark represents a
one or no character.
- To use the wildcard, enter the
desired search terms and replace each unknown character with a
"!".
- InfoTrac will find all citations
of that word with the "!"
replaced by a letter.
- Example
- Type
ne!t
to find:
- All citations containing
"neat", "nest", "next", as well as "net".
Asterisk Wildcard
(*)
- This wildcard is represented by
an asterisk (*).
- The asterisk represents any
number of characters.
- To use the asterisk:
- Enter a word and add an
"*"
to the end of it.
- This will find occurrence
of the word plus the plural form and other
endings.
- Enter the root of a word that
you want to search on term and replace the ending with an
"*".
- This will find all forms of
that word, including the original word.
- Example:
- Type
comput*
to find:
- Citations containing
"computer", "computerize", "computing", etc.
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