Similarity Search

Find terms that are similar to the Find text. Select this check box, and then click the Similarities button to define the similarity options.

To access this command...

or Ctrl+F

On the Table Data bar, click Find icon, then Similarity search check box, then click the Similarities button (database table view).

On the Form Navigation bar, click Record Search icon, then Similarity search check box, then click the Similarities button (database form view).

Choose Edit - Find & Replace - Similarity search check box, then click the Similarities button.

For example, a similarity search can find words that differ from the Find text by two characters.

Settings

Define the criteria for determining if a word is similar to the search term.

Exchange characters

Enter the number of characters in the search term that can be exchanged. For example, if you specify 2 exchanged characters, "sweep" and "creep" are considered similar.

Add characters

Enter the maximum number of characters by which a word can exceed the number of characters in the search term.

Remove characters

Enter the number of characters by which a word can be shorter than the search term.

Combine

Searches for a term that matches any combination of the similarity search settings.

Using Combine better meets a user's expectations from looking at the settings, but may return false positives. Not using Combine may match less than expected, but does not return false positives.

A Weighted Levenshtein Distance (WLD) algorithm is used. If Combine is not checked, then settings are treated as an exclusive-OR (strict WLD).If Combine is checked, then settings are treated as an inclusive-OR (relaxed WLD).

Be careful when using Replace All with Similarity Search. Best to be certain first about what will be found.