* (asterisk)

Type

Wild Card (Character Pattern) Symbol

Purpose

The * asterisk wild card character can be used to substitute for any number of unspecified characters in an alphanumeric string. It can be used up to twice in a string to show that an unspecified number of characters may have been omitted. The symbol can be used in any logical comparison or record selection context.

Example 1

for MEMBERS with LAST NAME = "~Read" ;

list records

LAST NAME in order ;

FIRST NAME .

End

This script tells DataEase: List the records for members whose last name ends with the letters son. The output for this script, in alphabetical order by LAST NAME, might look as follows:

Last Name

Anderson

Carlson

Christenson

Jackson

Johannsson

Example 2

for MEMBERS with LAST NAME = "*s?n" ;

list records

LAST NAME in order .

end

This script tells DataEase: List the members whose last name ends with the letters s and n, with an unknown value between them. The report output for this script might look as follows:

Last Name

Andersen

Anderson

Carlson

Christenson

Jackson

Johannsson