Access 2002 Programming by Example

Understanding Wildcards

There might be times when you do not need an exact match reflected in the records you are retrieving. Suppose, for example, that you want to see all the states in your table that begin with the letters “AR.” After examining Table 4.2 let’s try some wildcard queries by example.

Table 4.2. Wildcard Character Examples

Wildcard	Example	Operation
*	tr* selects train, translate, try, and so on	Match any number of characters
?	?at selects bat, cat, rat, and so on	Match any single character
[]	[bfk]ind selects bind, find, and kind, but not mind, hind, and wind	Match any single character within brackets
!	[!bfk]ind selects mind, hind, and wind, but not bind, find, and kind	Do not match any single character within brackets
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