wild cards


wild cards

Symbols used to represent any value when selecting specific files. In DOS, Windows and Unix, the asterisk (*) represents any collection of characters, and the question mark (?) represents a single character. In SQL, the percent sign (%) and underscore (_) are used for matching text. Note the following examples:

DOS and Windows (case insensitive) *.gif .gif or .GIF extension a*.gif beginning with "a" or "A" boot.* all files named "BooT" any mix upper/lower case *.d* extensions starting with "d" or "D" ?abc 1ABC, 2abc, etc. ??abc 10ABC, xxabc, etc. Windows only (case insensitive) *t.jpg JPEG files ending with "T" Unix only (case sensitive) *.jpg .jpg extension *.JPG .JPG extension a*.jpg beginning with "a" A*.jpg beginning with "A" boot.* all files named "boot" BOOT.* all files named "BOOT" ?abc 1abc, xabc, etc. ??ABC 10ABC, XXABC, etc. SQL Good% begining with "Good" _bcd any name followed by "bcd"