The * and ? wildcard characters can be used within the input file text box to specify exactly what files to process. Wildcard characters are used in searching through file directories for similar file names. For example if all the TXT files on a project start with the characters "B9" you could easily specify all the files using "B9*.TXT".
NOTE: Using a wildcard for the input files requires that the output file use the *.EXT format (where EXT is the output file type extension) so as to allow for 1 or more files to be processed.
NOTE: * and ? can be combined together to create powerful filters. See example 4 below.
Wildcard |
Meaning |
* |
Zero or more characters |
? |
Represents exactly one character, which can be any single character. Therefore, two question marks in succession would represent any two characters in succession, and three question marks in succession would represent any string consisting of three characters. |
Example 1:
To specify all TXT files whose first 4 characters begin with the digits "2015":
Input file = D:\InputFolder\2015*.TXT
Output file = D:\OutputFolder\*.EXT
In this example files such as 2015Apples.txt and 2015Oranges.txt would be processed. However any file not beginning with 2015 would be not be processed.
Example 2:
To specify all TXT files that begin with the word "sugar" and end with the word "spice" specify as follows:
Input file = D:\InputFolder\sugar*spice.TXT
Output file = D:\OutputFolder\*.EXT
Example 3:
To specify all TXT files that begin with "sugar" and end with "spice" and have exactly 3 characters between "sugar" and "spice":
Input file = D:\InputFolder\sugar???spice.TXT
Output file = D:\OutputFolder\*.EXT
In this example files such as sugarZYXspice.txt and sugar789spice.txt would be processed.
Example 4:
To specify all TXT files that begin with "sugar" followed by 3 characters followed with "spice" and then potentially 0 or more characters:
Input file = D:\InputFolder\sugar???spice*.TXT
Output file = D:\OutputFolder\*.EXT
So in this example files like sugar123spice.txt, sugar123spiceAndEverythingNice.txt would be processed.