10 tips for using wildcard characters in Microsoft Access criteria expressions

Wildcards come in handy when you need to locate records with similar data or you're trying to track down a specific record based on limited information. But if you don't use the right wildcard characters the right way, you could wind up with the wrong data--a potentially app-corrupting nightmare.

Access expert Susan Harkins has rounded up some tips to help you wield wildcards more effectively. She explains how to use various wildcards to match one or more characters in a specific position or in a list, to match symbols, and to exclude specified characters. She also looks at how you can accommodate both Jet SQL and T-SQL, which don't support the same wildcard characters.

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