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F.I.U. Library Home | About F.I.U. Libraries | Research |
Legal Research Pages: Basic Law — Citations & Abbreviations — Finding the Law — Databases — Connectors — Truncation, Wildcards
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Databases which allow Boolean searching (and most do) also allow certain other aids, as well as require certain things. For instance, if you are searching for a phrase (any term of more than one word), you need to put the phrase in quotation marks (""). Both of the legal databases will find plurals and singular forms of words automatically. Below are some options.
| STANDARD/ DESCRIPTION | LEXIS | WESTLAW | COMMENTS & EXAMPLES |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phrase searching | " " | " " | Putting words and phrases within quotation marks indicates to the computer that you want it found exactly the way you type it. IF YOU TYPE A PHRASE WITHOUT QUOTATION MARKS, most databases presume you meant to put "OR" between each pair of words. This completely changes the results you will get. |
| Truncation | ! | ! | Putting this symbol at the end of several letters tells the database to find any words beginning with whatever was typed before it. For instance, "manag!" finds manage, manager, management, managing, etc. "gyps!" will not only get gypsy and gypsies but also gypsum.
DO NOT USE "!" WITHIN A WORD; That is where you should use the wildcard. |
| Wildcard | * | * | Both legal databases use the asterisk (*) as a wildcard. You may use more than one; each asterisk stands for 1 letter only. The asterisk may be used anywhere in the word except the initial letter. It can be used at the end when truncation is too general. For instance, "manag***" will find manage, manager, managers without finding management because it specifies up to 3 letters after the root, "manag"; when used at the end of a word, the asterisk means "any letter or no letter." |
Links to the main legal databases may be found on the F.I.U. Library's website under the Research tab at the Business Law page.
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This page created and maintained by Steve Morris,
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Content Last Updated : August 26, 2009 |
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