Wildcards for Find and Replace

Last modified: October 23, 2019

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. In the Find and Replace window, select the Use check box and choose Wildcards from the drop-down list. The arrow button next to the Find what field becomes active.

2. 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
?	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.
[!]	Characters not in set	Matches any one character that is not specified in the set.
\	Escape	Matches the character that follows the backslash () as a literal. This allows you to find the characters used in wildcard notation, such as * and #.
*	One or more characters	Matches any one or more characters. For example, test* matches any text that includes “test”, such as testfile.txt.
[]	Set of characters	Matches any one of the characters specified in the set.