Search Techniques: Subject 
Boolean 
Wildcard 
Databases 

   

 

Search Techniques: Wildcards

Wildcards are characters that represent one or more letters in your search terms. They allow you to retrieve:

COLOR*
  • singular and plural (color, colors)
  • different word endings from the root (colors, colorization, colorized)
     
COLO*R
  • unknown letters in the middle of a word or variant spelling (color, colour)

Wildcards vary across databases. Read the Help Text to find out which characters are used as wildcards (+, !, *, ?, etc.) and for what function.G82aa.jpg (1322 bytes) 

 

What does this look like in LexisNexis? FirstSearch? SilverPlatter?