Wildcards for Find and Replace

Last modified: October 15, 2020

The Find and Replace window contains a list of expressions to replace characters or digits in the Find what field. They are called Wildcards.

To select a required wildcard, do the following:

1. On the Edit menu, hover over Find and Replace and select Find.

2. In the Find and Replace dialog, select the Use check box and choose Wildcards from the drop-down list.

   

   The arrow button next to the Find what field becomes active.

3. In the Find what field, click the arrow button and select a wildcard from the drop-down list. It is inserted into the Find what field.

The drop-down list contains the following wildcards:

Syntax	Expression	Description
*	Zero or more of any character	Matches one or more characters. For example, test* matches any text that includes “test”, such as textfile.txt.
?	Any single character	Matches any single character.
#	Any single digit	Matches any single digit. For example, 5# matches numbers that include 5 followed by another number, such as 51, but not 15.
[]	Any one character in the set	Matches one of the characters specified in the set.
[!]	Any one character not in the set	Matches one character that is not specified in the set.
\	Escape Special Character	Matches the character that follows the backslash as a literal. This allows you to find the characters used in wildcard notation, such as * and #.