Using the UF Libraries' Catalog

Truncation

These truncation and wildcard rules apply to keyword searches:

The ? character or* character (asterisk) can be used at the beginning, middle, or end of a word as a placeholder for an unlimited number of characters:

?pane or *pane will retrieve propane, windowpane, etc.
expect* will retrieve expect, expects, expectation, etc.
col*r will retrieve color, colour, colonizer, etc.

The ! character can be used to find variant spellings in cases where a single character may vary. For example, wom!n will retrieve both woman and women.

The # symbol can be also used to find variant spellings in cases where one version of the word may have one more character than another version. For example, colo#r will find both color and colour; and arch#eology will find both archaeology and archeology.

If you receive an error screen, you may have truncated your terms too loosely. If you search for ant?, the database will search not only for ant and ants but also antelope and antarctica and anthropology. The system is limited in the number of terms it will retrieve. If you are only interested in ants, type in ant or ants to ensure a speedier and more accurate search.