Wildcard masks are patterns of special characters used to filter files/folder names or transfers. When a wildcard mask is matched against a filename, the two patterns are compared, letter-by-letter, from left to right until a mismatch occurs. If all the characters in both patterns compare positively, the filename matches the Wildcard Mask.
Wildcard mask characters
? Will match any singe character (i.e. ? will match a,b,c,1,2,etc...)
* Will match any sequence of characters (including no characters at all), terminated by the next character in the mask. (i.e. *a will match cutea, wwwa, zzza, etc.).
[ ] Will match any character in the character set enclosed in the brackets. This can also be a range of characters (i.e. [A - Z] ).
If the opening bracket is followed by “!", will match any character NOT in the set. (i.e. [!abc] will match any character except a,b,c)
|
Mask |
Will Match |
Will NOT Match |
|
* |
all files |
|
|
*.bmp |
sample.bmp, xyz.bmp |
sample.gif |
|
x?z |
xyz, xaz |
xyy, zyz |
|
a[xyz]c |
axc, ayc, azc |
abc, awc |
|
a[!xyz]c |
abc, adc, awc |
axc, ayc, azc |
|
a[a-c]d |
aad, abd, acd |
add, axd |