Some criteria operators enable you to use special characters or a series of characters to define conditions that a record must meet to be selected. These special characters are called “wildcards.” Wildcards are extremely helpful when you are unsure how to spell a name or suspect something may be misspelled. Below is a list of wildcard characters and examples of how they are used.
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Operator |
Description |
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Question Mark (?) or Underscore (_) |
Use the question mark or the underscore symbol to replace a character. When you include a question mark within a word, you search for every possible spelling of the word with the question mark in that specific spot. You can use multiple question marks within a word. For example, to locate any records with a last name like Smith or Smyth, you can use the criteria Last name “is like” Sm?th. The program selects all records whose last name fits the pattern specified. |
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Asterisk (*) or Percent (%) |
Use the asterisk or percent sign to replace a series of characters. For example, to locate all constituents with a last name like Johnson, you can enter the criteria Last name “like” John*. The program selects all records with a last name that starts with “John”, such as Johnson, Johnssen, and Johnston. |
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Brackets ([]) |
Use brackets to query for a range of characters or to locate several characters. For example, use the criteria Last name “begins with” [A-C] to locate all records with a last name that begins with A through C. When you use the brackets with a comma between characters, you search for records with the specific values listed. For example, if you select the criteria Last name “begins with” [A,C,F], the program selects all records with last names beginning with A, C, and F and skips those with last names that begin with B, D, and E. |