Do a fuzzy search on a value with Qlik Wildmatch function

There are lots times in Qlik Sense and Qlikview where you want to be able to search a value for a particular string. Some people might call this semantic analysis, some people might call it a fuzzy lookup, either way it is very easy to do.

The wildmatch function performs a case insensitive comparison and permits the use of wildcard characters ( * and ?) in the comparison strings. It can be used in the load script or in the front end.

Example:

wildmatch( M, ‘ja*’,’fe?’,’mar’)

returns 1 if M = January

returns 2 if M = fex

You can easilly use the wildmatch function with variables as well if you want a dynamic list of search items.

wildmatch(M, $(vListofsearchitems))