Truncation, masking and phrases

Truncation

You can truncate with an asterisk (*) to find words with a variety of different endings and derivatives. Right-hand truncation is the most common. In this case, the search will find all the words that begin with the word stem used.

Example: catalog*
Result: This search will find records containing the words catalog, catalogue, catalogues, cataloging, cataloguing etc.

You can also use the truncation character within a search term.

Example: johans*on
Result: This search will find records containing either Johanson or Johansson.

Masking

You can mask characters with a question mark (?) to find a variety of different spellings. Each question mark corresponds to one character.

Example: lind??ist
Result: This search will find records containing Lindkvist, Lindqvist, Lindquist etc.

The masking character can be used together with the truncation character (in the same search term). In that case the masking character must precede the truncation character.

Example: e?onom*
Result: This search will find records containing the words ekonom, ekonomi, ekonomisk, economist, economy économique etc.

Phrases

You can search for exact phrases by placing the phrase within quotation marks (").

Example: "teknisk fysik"
Result: This search will find records containing the words together in that order.