Use Wildcards – a great tip to use on databases (#10)

Some databases allow you to use wildcards in their search options. This means that you can search for multiple variations of a keyword in one go.

Wildcard symbols ? (question mark) and # (hash)

What is a wildcard?

Using a wildcard is where you use a symbol to replace a letter or null in a keyword to find variations of that word. Typically you use a question mark [?] or a hash symbol [#].

This is most useful when you are looking for the British and American spelling of a word; for example p#ediatrics will find paediatrics (british spelling) and pediatrics (american spelling).

Try our etutorial Develop Your Search Terms to practice identifying wildcard terms.

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