Using Placeholders

You can use placeholder characters within search terms. This way you can find values that begin with a specific character or match a specific pattern string.

Character	Usage	Example
*	This character corresponds to any number of characters. It can be used either as the first or last character in the string.	Searching for wa* will result in wax, want, wait, etc.
?	This character corresponds to an individual character.	Searching for h?t will result in hat, hut, hit, h2t, etc.

Placeholder characters are intended for use with "Text" data type fields, but they can sometimes also be used with other data types, for example with the "Date" data type, if you do not change the regional settings for these data types.

Special characters

If you are searching for an asterisk (*), a question mark (?), a number sign (#), an opening square bracket ([) or a hyphen (-), you must enclose the character to be searched in square brackets.

If you are searching for an exclamation mark (!) or a closing square bracket (]), you do not have to place them in brackets.

If you search for a hyphen and other characters at the same time, place the hyphen either before or after all other characters within the brackets. (However, if the opening bracket is followed by an exclamation mark (!), set the hyphen after the exclamation mark.)

You cannot search for both opening and closing square brackets ([ ]) because this combination is interpreted as an empty string. You must enter the start and end brackets in brackets ([[ ]]).