Wildcards for Text

Wildcard	Description
*	No or several characters.
?	Any single character.
#	Any single numeral (0 - 9).
[charlist]	Any single character in charlist.
[!charlist]	Any single character that isn't contained in charlist.

The wildcards can be combined in any sequence.

The following characters have to be inserted in square brackets in order to be used for a compare operation: left square bracket ([), question mark (?), pound sign (#) and asterisk (*). The right square bracket (]) can't be used in a string of characters being compared. However, it can be indicated outside of a string as an individual character.

You can also specify a range of characters in charlist by indicating the largest and smallest value of the range, separated by a hyphen (-). For example, [A-Z] results in a match if the respective character position in charlist is a letter between A and Z. You can specify a sequence of several ranges in square brackets without using separators.

Other key rules for using wildcards:

An exclamation point (!) at the beginning of charlist means that a match results when any character except for the characters in charlist is found. If the exclamation point is used outside of the square brackets it serves as a wildcard for itself.
A hyphen (-) can appear at the beginning (after an exclamation point, if present) or at the end of charlist in order to serve as a wildcard for itself. In any other position a hyphen serves to designate a character range.
When a range of characters is specified, the characters have to be listed in ascending order (from the lowest to the highest). This means that [A-Z] is a permissible pattern whereas [Z-A] isn't.

Examples:

Type of correspondence	Text	Correspondence	No correspondence
Several characters	*aa**	aa, aBa, aBBBa	aBC
	*ab*	abc, AABB, Xab	aZb, bac
[ ? # *	*a[]a**	a*a	aaa
Several characters	ab*	abcdefg, abc	cab, aab
Individual characters	a?a	aaa, a3a, aBa	aBBBa
Individual numerals	a#a	a0a, a1a, a2a	aaa, a10a
Character range	[a-z]	f, p, j	2, &
Outside of range	[!a-z]	9, &, %	b, a
No numerals	[!0-9]	A, a, &, ~	0, 1, 9
Combination	a[!b-m]#	An9, az0, a99	abc, aj0