What is the Purpose of Truncation in Search?

Truncation, also known as derivation or wildcard search, is a technique used in databases to broaden the search to include multiple word endings and spellings. Learn more about truncation and its benefits with examples.

What is the Purpose of Truncation in Search?

Truncation, also known as derivation or wildcard search, is a technique used in databases to broaden the search to include multiple word endings and spellings. To use truncation, you enter the root of a word and add a truncation symbol at the end. This will return results that include any endings of that root word. Truncation is a useful tool for finding different forms of a word simultaneously and increasing the number of search results found.

Truncation means cutting a point or shortening it. When used with keywords, it means keeping the root of the keywords and removing everything else. This allows you to search for a term and its spelling variants at the same time. For example, if you wanted to search for words related to 'run', you could use truncation to search for 'run*'.

This would return results such as 'running', 'runner', 'runs', etc. Truncation is an effective way to quickly find relevant information in databases. It can save time by eliminating the need to manually enter multiple variations of a word. It also helps to ensure that all relevant results are included in the search.

Charlotte Wilson
Charlotte Wilson

Friendly travel advocate. Freelance zombie scholar. Extreme web practitioner. Evil coffee buff. Professional beer practitioner.

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