When you include punctuation in your search,The CAT does one of the following: ignores it, supplies spaces, or replaces it with a word variation of the punctuation you used.
If you want to include the punctuation mark as a literal character, you must enclose it in double quotation marks.
What you type | CAT uses | What happens |
---|---|---|
cat & dog | cat dog --or-- cat and dog |
Punctuation is Ignored --or-- Punctuation is Replaced |
cat "&" dog | cat & dog | Literal (Punctuation included in search because double quotes are included) |
CAB/CAIN -or- CAB Cain | CAB/CAIN | Space is supplied |
Punctuation | Mark | Replaced With |
---|---|---|
accent | ` | space |
ampersand | & | ignored |
apostrophe (single quotation mark) |
' | ignored |
asterisk | * | space |
at (each) sign | @ | space |
back slash | \ | ignored |
brackets | [ ] | spaces |
circumflex | ignored | |
colon | : | space |
comma | , | space |
exclamation point | ! | space |
forward slash | / | space |
hyphen | - | included |
number sign (pound sign, musical sharp) |
# | space |
percentage sign | % | space |
period | . | |
plus | + | space |
semicolon | ; | space |
tilde | ~ | space |
underscore | _ | space |