A ? in a word matches any single character (including a Unicode character), and a * matches any number of characters.
The wildcard characters can be in any position in a word. For example:
appl* would match apple, application, etc.
*cipl* would match principle, participle, etc.
appl? would match apply and apple but not apples.
ap*ed would match applied, approved, etc.
Use of the * wildcard character near the beginning of a word will slow searches somewhat.
Another wildcard, the = wildcard in dtSearch Desktop, matches any digit (0-9). For example, === would match any three-digit number. This wildcard is disabled in the dtSearch Engine by default. To enable it, set Options.MatchDigitChar option setting to the character that you want to use as the wildcard.