Electronic Search Strategies: Truncation & Wildcards

Electronic Search Strategies: Truncation & Wildcards

Using special symbols in combination with words or word parts allows you to improve the quality and number of hits you receive with a search.

This feature of electronic searching will increase the number of hits in your search results. You search the stem or root of a word and the search engine or database automatically locates records with all words that begin with that string of characters.

Terminal or End Truncation

A symbol at the end of a word stem provides for all variants on the word stem. The most commonly used symbol is the asterisk (*).

For example, a search for

educat*

will retrieve

educate, educating, education, educational, educator, educators, etc.

Internal Truncation

A symbol within a word provides for all possible variants inside a word or word stem. The most commonly used symbol for internal truncation is # or sometimes ?. Check with the resource you are using to see which symbols it uses.

wom#n

woman and women

Look at the help pages for the database you are using to determine the truncation symbols. Most systems provide truncation; some provide only simple plurals.