Wildcards (*, ? and =)

A ? in a word matches any single 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. 

The = wildcard matches any single digit.  For example, N===  would match N123 but not N1234 or Nabc.