Searching with Text Masks
Many of the search dialog boxes use name masking, using the asterisk character (*), in order to search through the many items in a database.
The allowable operators in the query are:
- \= Equals
- <> Not Equal to
- > Greater than
- >= Greater than or equal to
- < Less than
- <= Less than or equal to
- LIKE Text Mask
- AND, OR Used to join query sections.
Use the LIKE operator to mask text with either the wildcard asterisk, *, representing a section of the text or the percent sign, %, representing a wildcard for a single character. The following table lists some masks and samples of the items returned:
Text Mask Examples
| Mask | Return Sample |
|---|---|
| S* | Silver, S Hampton, S101 |
| D*S | DIOXIDES, D 231-45s |
| %101 | A101, B101, 4101 |
| Tank%01* | Tank401a, Tank101, Tank 019330s |
| *meter | Returns all items with "meter" at the end. |
| Unit 1* | Returns all items with "Unit 1" at the beginning. |
| 101 | Returns all items with "101" anywhere within the name. |