Wildcards
The wildcard operator (*) is used to search for partial
matches (prefixes, suffixes, and substrings) of indexed terms.
Wildcard expansion is performed internally by replacing
each pattern with a limited list of terms that match the pattern before
actually executing the query. Very broad wildcard expressions might
therefore return a partial list of results.
Note:
- Terms generated by wildcard expansion are not stemmed.
- Wildcards cannot be used within quoted phrases.
Table 1. Wildcard Examples
| Search Type |
Query |
Matches |
| prefix |
cat* |
Finds all documents containing terms that start with cat, such
as caterpillar. |
| suffix |
*cat |
Finds all documents with terms that end in cat, such as tomcat. |
| substring |
*cat* |
Finds all documents with terms that contain cat, such as tomcats.
Mid-string wildcard expressions must contain at least three characters
(for example, *abc* is legal but *bc* is not). |
