Identifying Words with Similar Spelling


You can use the fuzzy search operator to retrieve records that contain words with spelling similar to that of a query term. That part of a query term that will be matched exactly is determined by the placement of the operator--a tilde--within the word; the character string that precedes the operator will be anchored, meaning that it must be identical in all terms qualified by PLWeb Turbo as having similar spelling.

The fuzzy search operator can be helpful in finding word variants or misspellings in a database--the result of typographical mistakes or errors during OCR (optical character recognition) processing.

Note: Regardless of where you position the fuzzy search operator in a query term, the first character of the term will be anchored.
Syntax:

string1~string2
where string1 is the part of the query term that must be matched exactly, and string2 is the part that will be matched with similar spelling patterns.

Example:

Kir~gizia
cyclo~hexene
The first query will retrieve records that contain Kirgizia or alternate spellings of the word, such as Kirghizia.

The second query will retrieve records that contain cyclohexene or similarly spelled words like cyclooctene and cyclohexane.

CAUTION: Use of this operator may result in a search for words relating to entirely different subjects. For example, the query anti~ might search for antics, antique, and Antigua.
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