WILD CARDS

"?" means that one character in DOS.

Example: In the "MyDirectory" folder, there are many files.

C:\MyDirectory>dir /w

C:\MyDirectory>dir FileNo?

ð It is showing the files, which file's name is started with "FileNo" and next one character may be a, b, c ...., z or 0, 1, 2, ...., 9 etc. Some examples are given below,

C:\MyDirectory>dir FileN?

C:\MyDirectory>dir ??

C:\MyDirectory>dir com.???

ð Showing that files which have only three characters to extension of file's name.

C:\MyDirectory>dir ?.?

"*" means more character:

c:\NewDir> dir *open

firstopen secondopen oldopen

ð Showing that type of file which have last four characters are "open".

Example,

c:\NewDir> dir *mail*

sumonmail1 sumonmail2 azgarmail1

ð Showing that type of files which have in middle, four character are "mail".

c:\NewDir> dir sumon.*

sumon.sh sumon.cpp sumon.c

ð Showing that type of files which file name is "sumon" and can be any extension.

c:\NewDir> dir *.*

ð It will show all the files which file have a any type of extension.

c:\NewDir> dir *

=> It will show all the files.

Note: We can also use this above wildcards in others command, copy, move, del etc