WILDCARDS (* and ?)

The ? and * characters have special significance to DOS when they are used as 
a part of a filename or an extension. For obscure historical reasons they are 
called wildcards. Wildcards cannot be used in directory names.

		*					?

An asterisk (*) will match any string	A question mark (?) will match any
of characters at the END of a filename	single character in the same relative
or an extension. For example, HE* will	position in a filename or extension.
match HELLO, HEPP, HEX, HE, HEROIC,	For example, HE??O will match HELLO,
HENPECK, and any other filename that	HEPPO, HEXYO, and any other filename
begins with HE, but it will not match	that is five characters long and begins
H. 					with HE and ends with O, but it will
					not match HELP (which is only four
*.ASM would match any filename in the	characters long). However, HE??? would
current directory with an extension of	match HELP (and any other filename less
.ASM. TESTPROG.* would match any	than five characters long beginning
filename in the current directory with	with HE).
a filename of TESTPROG, no matter what
the extension.				?.ASM would match any filename that was
					one character long with an extension
*.* will match ALL filenames in the	of .ASM. TESTPROG.A?? would match any
current directory, so use it with       extension of the file named TESTPROG,
caution.				that began with A.


WARNING: *X.* IS EXACTLY THE SAME AS *.*, because * matches any string of 
characters at the END of a filename!

HINT: If a "bad" filename (one with characters that cannot be readily entered
from the keyboard) somehow gets created, and you cannot delete it explicitly,
use ? to match the "bad" part of the filename. For example, the file 
OOPS*.TXT could be deleted by the command

	DEL OOPS???.TXT.
