Wildcard Queries
Wildcard queries are a search technique used in databases, search engines, and programming to match patterns in text data by using special characters (wildcards) as placeholders for unknown or variable characters. They allow for flexible and partial matching, such as finding all words starting with a specific prefix or containing certain characters. This concept is fundamental in querying systems like SQL, NoSQL databases, and full-text search engines.
Developers should learn wildcard queries when building or optimizing search functionalities, data filtering, or text processing applications, as they enable efficient pattern-based retrieval without exact matches. They are particularly useful in scenarios like autocomplete features, log analysis, or data validation where partial or fuzzy matching is required, such as searching for customer names with variations or filtering product codes.