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Wild Cards

Introduction

CA on CD's Word Search feature gives you the option of using Wild Card characters in search terms.

Description

Wild Card characters represent undefined letters or numerals in a search term.

Wild Card characters allow for retrieval of

• Singular and plural word forms
• Spelling variations (e.g., British/American spellings)
• Word stems with prefixes and suffixes

Wild Card Characters

This table identifies each Wild Card character used in Word Search and its function in a search term.

Wildcard Character	Function	Example	Possible Retrievals
*	Represents zero to any number of characters at the beginning or end of a term.	*GROW*	GROW GROWS OUTGROWTH
?	Represents exactly one character within a term...	T??TH	TEETH TOOTH TRUTH
	...or one character at the end of a term.	AMIN?	AMINE AMINO

Rules for Use

These rules apply to the use of wildcard characters:

• Wild Card characters may be combined within the same term
• Multiple occurrences of ? are allowed