User Guide

Table Of Contents
Using explicit queries 585
Using wildcards and special characters
Part of the strength of the Verity search is its use of wildcards and special characters to refine
searches. Wildcard searches are especially useful when you are unsure of the correct spelling of a
term. Special characters help you search for tags in your code.
Searching with wildcards
The following table shows the wildcard characters that you can use to search Verity collections:
masters OR doctorate AND nausea masters, or the combination of doctorate and nausea
masters OR (doctorate AND nausea) masters, or the combination of doctorate and nausea
(masters OR doctorate) AND nausea either masters or doctorate, and nausea
masters OR doctorate NOT nausea either masters or doctorate, but not nausea
Wildcard Description Example Search result
? Matches any single
alphanumeric character.
apple? apples or applet
* Matches zero or more
alphanumeric characters.
Avoid using the asterisk as
the first character in a search
string. An asterisk is ignored
in a set, ([]) or an alternative
pattern ({}).
app*ed Appleseed, applied,
appropriated, and so on
[ ] Matches any one of the
characters in the brackets.
Square brackets indicate an
implied OR.
<WILDCARD> 'sl[iau]m' slim, slam, or slum
{ } Matches any one of a set of
patterns separated by a
comma,
<WILDCARD>
'hoist{s,ing,ed}'
hoists, hoisting, or hoisted
^ Matches any character not in
the set.
<WILDCARD>'sl[^ia]m' slum, but not slim or slam
- Specifies a range for a single
character in a set.
<WILDCARD> 'c[a-r]t' cat, cot, but not cut (that is,
every word beginning with c,
ending with t, and containing
any single letter from a to r)
Search term Returns files that contain