^ Circumflex - Start of line
A circumflex forces the match to start with the
first character of the line.
$ Dollar Sign - End of line
A dollar sign forces the match to end with the
last character the of line.
. Period - Match any character
A period matches any single character.
* Asterisk - Match 0 or more previous characters
A character followed by an asterisk matches
zero or more occurrences of that character.
Sample Matches:
to* Matches t to too
10* matches 1 10 100 1000 10000
Special Character Combination
.* Period Asterisk - Match 0 or more any characters
A Period followed by an Asterisk will match any
number of any characters.
+ Plus - Match 1 or more characters
A character followed by an plus sign matches
one or more occurrences of that character.
Sample Matches:
to+ Matches to too
10+ Matches 10 100 1000 10000
? Question Mark - Optionally match
A character followed by a question mark makes
that character optional in the search.
Sample Matches:
to? Matches both t and to
10? Matches both 1 and 10
() Brackets - Expression group
Brackets can be used to group characters
together prior to using a * + or ?.
Sample Matches:
Win(dows)? Matches Win and Windows
B(an)*a Matches Ba, Bana and Banana
[ ] Square brackets - Character group
Characters within a set of square brackets
matches any listed character, but no others. If
the first character is a circumflex the expression
matches any character except the listed
characters. A range of characters may be
specified by two characters separated by a -.
The range should be done in the following
order (A-Z, a-z, 0-9,A-z, A-9)
Sample Matches:
H[uo]w Matches Huw and How
Gre[^py] Matches Green, Great etc. but
not Grep, Grey etc.
[z-a] Matches nothing
^[A-Z] Match lines beginning with
Uppercase A through Z
WILDCARD SEARCH OF COMBINED ROSTER DATABASE
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Useful Wildcard Characters
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Sample Search 1 - Looking for someone with the first name of John that
was stationed in Hof between 1957 and 1959 and assigned to the 6910.
The search expression would look like this: ^john.*195[7-9].6910
First Name John ^john
Ignore Everything Until Year .*
Between 1957 and 1959 195[7-9]
Ignore Space Between Year and Unit .
Assigned To 6910 6910
Sample Search 2 - Looking for any active member that was assinged to
Hof in 1946.
The search expression would look like this: [a-z].1946.*Active
Start With Last Letter of Last Name [a-z]
Ignore space between Last Name and Year Assigned .
Year Assigned 1946 1946
Ignore Everything Between Year and Status .*
Status Active Active
Check uppercase box and type Active with an uppercase "A".
Prevents finding "active" within "Inactive" status
The combined roster contains information from the Active, Inactive and
Missing rosters. Use of wildcard characters has been added to aid your
searches.
Below are two examples of Search Expressions and on the right hand
side of the page is a list of the most useful wildcard characters.
There is no need to reset the database after each search but If things
start to look strange just left click "Reset File" and wait for the database
to reload.
When you are finished searching just close this page and you will be
returned to the Association's Web Site.