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<helpdocument version="1.0">
	
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<meta>
      <topic id="textswriterguidesearch_regexpxml" indexer="include" status="PUBLISH">
         <title xml-lang="en-US" id="tit">Using Wildcards in Text Searches</title>
         <filename>/text/swriter/guide/search_regexp.xhp</filename>
      </topic>
   </meta>
   <body>
<bookmark xml-lang="en-US" branch="index" id="bm_id3150099"><bookmark_value>wildcards, see regular expressions</bookmark_value>
      <bookmark_value>searching; with wildcards</bookmark_value>
      <bookmark_value>regular expressions;searching</bookmark_value>
      <bookmark_value>examples for regular expressions</bookmark_value>
      <bookmark_value>characters;finding all</bookmark_value>
      <bookmark_value>invisible characters;finding</bookmark_value>
      <bookmark_value>paragraph marks;searching</bookmark_value>
</bookmark><comment>mw deleted "wildcards;" and inserted wildcards crossreference</comment><comment>mw added "paragraph marks;"</comment>
<paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="hd_id3150099" role="heading" level="1"><variable id="search_regexp"><link href="text/swriter/guide/search_regexp.xhp">Using Wildcards in Text Searches</link>
</variable></paragraph>
      <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id0509200916345516" role="paragraph">Wildcards or placeholders can be used to search for some unspecified or even invisible characters.</paragraph>
      <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id3155182" role="paragraph">You can use wildcards when you find and replace text in a document. For example, "s.n" finds "sun" and "son".</paragraph>
      <list type="ordered">
         <listitem>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id3155907" role="listitem">Choose <item type="menuitem">Edit - Find &amp; Replace</item>.</paragraph>
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id2142399" role="listitem">Click <item type="menuitem">More Options</item> to expand the dialog.</paragraph>
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id3155861" role="listitem">Select the <item type="menuitem">Regular expressions</item> check box.</paragraph>
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id3149843" role="listitem">In the <item type="menuitem">Find</item> box, type the search term and the wildcard(s) that you want to use in your search.</paragraph>
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id3156113" role="listitem">Click <item type="menuitem">Find Next</item> or <item type="menuitem">Find All</item>.</paragraph>
         </listitem>
      </list>
      <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="hd_id3153401" role="heading" level="2">Regular Expression Examples</paragraph>
      <list type="ordered">
         <listitem>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id3149641" role="listitem">The wildcard for a single character is a period (.).</paragraph>
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id3153136" role="listitem">The wildcard for zero or more occurrences of the previous character is an asterisk. For example: "123*" finds "12" "123", and "1233".</paragraph>
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id3149609" role="listitem">The wildcard combination to search for zero or more occurrences of any character is a period and asterisk (.*).</paragraph>
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id3149854" role="listitem">The wildcard for the end of a paragraph is a dollar sign ($). The wildcard character combination for the start of a paragraph is a caret and a period (^.).</paragraph>
         </listitem>
         <listitem>
            <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id0509200916345545" role="listitem">The wildcard for a tab character is \t.</paragraph>
         </listitem>
      </list>
      <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id3153414" role="note">A search using a regular expression will work only within one paragraph. To search using a regular expression in more than one paragraph, do a separate search in each paragraph.</paragraph>
      <section id="relatedtopics">
         <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id3149875" role="paragraph"><link href="text/shared/01/02100001.xhp" name="List of Wildcards">List of Wildcards</link></paragraph>
      </section>
   </body>
</helpdocument>