Wildcard Characters

Wildcard characters are supported in report/inquiry selection criteria, lookups, and in other search functions. Wildcard characters take the place of one or more characters. Strings used with search characters are not case sensitive.

Using Wildcard Characters

Wildcard

Matches

*

zero or more characters; examples:

  • *NUT* finds strings that include "nut", "Nut", "NUT", etc.

  • *nut finds strings that end with "nut", "Nut", "NUT", etc.

  • nut* finds strings that start with "nut", "Nut", "NUT", etc.

?

a single character; examples:

  • n?? finds strings that start with "n" or "N" followed by any two characters

  • ????? finds 5-character strings

#

any single digit (0-9); examples:

  • *# finds strings that end in a number

  • #000# finds strings that start with a number and are followed by 3 zeros and a number

[list]

any single character in list; examples:

  • X*[12] finds strings that start with X followed by zero or more characters and end in 1 or 2

  • [ABC]# finds strings that start with A, a, B, b, C or c and end with a number

[!list]

any single character not in list; example:

  • [!0-9]* finds strings that do not start with a number

\

enables you to search for a wildcard character in a string; example:

  • *\? finds strings that end in ?

  • *\#* finds strings have a # (pound or hash sign) in the string
 

Tips for Using Wildcard Characters With Numeric Values

In Alphanumeric Fields:
Some alphanumeric fields that only contain numbers (e.g., customer, vendor, employee or sales rep number) store the numeric value right-justified with leading spaces. In such fields, you can restrict your search to number-only values by using *<space> at the start of the search pattern. For example, entering * 2* in a customer search finds number-only customers that start with 2 (e.g., 20, 21, 235, etc.).

In Numeric Fields:
You can use wildcards to select positive or negative values as these examples illustrate: