Wildcard Characters

The asterisk (*), question mark (?), number sign (#), exclamation point (!), hyphen (-), and brackets ([ ]) are wildcard characters. You can use these characters in queries and expressions to include all records, file names, or other items that begin with specific characters or match a certain pattern.
Symbol Usage Example
* Matches any number of characters, and can be used anywhere in the character string wh* finds what, white, and why

*at finds cat, bat, and what

? Matches any single character b?ll finds ball, bell, and bill
# Matches any single digit 1#3 finds 103, 113, 123
[ ] Matches any single character within the brackets b[ae]ll finds ball and bell but not bill
! Matches any character not in the list b[!ae]ll finds bill and bull but not bell or ball
- Matches any one of a range of characters b[a-c]d finds bad, bbd, and bcd

Note The wildcard characters * (asterisk), ? (question mark), # (number sign), and [ (opening bracket) can match themselves only if enclosed in brackets.

The following table shows how you can use wildcard characters to test expressions for different patterns.

Kind of match

Pattern
Match
(returns True)
No match
(returns False)
Multiple characters a*a aa, aBa, aBBBa aBC
  *ab* abc, AABB, Xab aZb, bac
Special character a[*]a a*a aaa
Multiple characters ab* abcdefg, abc cab, aab
Single character a?a aaa, a3a, aBa aBBBa
Single digit a#a a0a, a1a, a2a aaa, a10a
Range of characters [a-z] f, p, j 2, &
Outside a range [!a-z] 9, &, % b, a
Not a digit [!0-9] A, a, &, ~ 0, 1, 9
Combined a[!b-m]# An9, az0, a99 abc, aj0