====== Wildcards for searching for records ======

^Key^Action^Example^
|% |Find any (or no) characters| **%International** finds all records whose name starts with anything but finishes with International.\\ **International%** finds all records whose name starts with International but finishes with anything.|
|? |Finds a single unknown character | **SM?THJ** finds John Smith, James Smith, John Smyth and Jane Smith.|
|* |Finds one or more unknown character(s) | **SM*THJ** finds John Smith, James Smith, John Smyth, Jane Smith and Jane Smeath\\ Enter * on its own to display all the items in the database|
|[...]|The area within a set of square brackets represents one character. The database matches anything within the square brackets |**NE1[ ]** looks for postcode NE1 only and not NE11 or NE12 because the 4th character must be a space.\\  **NE[123][ ]** looks for NE followed by either 1, 2 or 3 as the third character and then a space so NE1, NE2 or NE3 only.\\ **NE1[12]** looks for postcodes NE11 and NE12 because the 4th character must either be a 1 or a 2.\\ This can be very useful for controlled postcode lookup.|


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Go back to [[hints_and_tips|Hints, tips and shortcuts]]\\ Go back to [[quick_guides_8|How to find a person record]]