When using query by example there are the known wildcard characters “*” or “%” and “?” or “_”; but, recently I stumbled upon a new wildcard known as the charlist.
| Wildcard | Description |
|---|---|
| * or % | A substitute for zero or more characters |
| ? or _ | A substitute for exactly one character |
| [charlist] | Any single character in charlist |
| [^charlist]or[!charlist] | Any single character not in charlist |
If you had a field “First Name” and entered the search value petrsl most likely that will return no results; however if you enter [petrsl] the search will return a result where the field starts with “p” or “e” or “t” or “r” or “s” or “l” by wrapping your search criteria with an open bracket [ and close bracket ].
*[^ ]-[^ ]* This says, give me all the records with a ‘-‘ in the field, just so long as the character right before – and right after – isn’t a [space].
If you need to find records that start with a range of characters or numbers remember the charlist wildcard.