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Module
1 - Searching Expertise - Truncation/Wildcards |
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Truncation/Wildcard
Truncation enables you to use a search term
with variant endings without having to repeat
the search. Added to the stem of a word, a truncation
symbol will find that stem plus anything that
comes after it. The symbol used to truncate a
word depends upon the index, database or Web
search engine you are using.
environ* will return records
on environment, environments, environmental.
* is used as the truncation symbol in
Environmental Engineering Abstracts.
$ is used as the truncation
symbol in Socrates, Stanford's online catalog.
A wildcard is used to replace one character,
but using that wildcard multiple times will replace
a fixed number of characters.
wom?n will return records
on woman and women.
w??k will return records
with any term that begins with w and ends with
k with two characters in between, such as work,
week, walk.
Look for the Help links
in each database to determine the symbols used.
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