Computers and Computing

Gale Encyclopedia of E-Commerce A Dictionary of Computing A Dictionary of the Internet Further reading

Wildcards

Gale Encyclopedia of E-Commerce | 2002 | Copyright

WILDCARDS

Wildcards are symbols that can be used to represent other values or characters during a search for files or other information on a computer system. They also can be used to search for Web sites with search engines—programs that comb the World Wide Web to look for relevant Web sites, based on keywords or phrases entered by a user.

The ability to use a wildcard depends on a computer's operating system—for example, Windows, DOS or Unix—and the search engine being used. In DOS or Windows, a user could search for all files that begin with the letter L by entering "l*." In this case, the asterisk stands for any letter combination after the letter L. Entering "l*.txt" would initiate a search for all text-only files beginning with the letter L. By including a dollar sign after the keyword horse ("horse$"), a search engine would look for Web sites containing different variations of the keyword, such as horse, horsecar, horseshoe, horseman, and so on. Thus, by using wildcards, users are able to broaden the scope of their searches.

wildcard

A Dictionary of Computing | 2004 | | Copyright

wildcard A character that can stand for a number of different characters. In a search, for instance, if $ is a wildcard meaning any number of characters, then find compute$ will find compute, computer, computers, computed, etc. Again if % is a wildcard meaning any single character in, say, a command to delete some files, then delete fred% will cause fred1, fred2, fred3 to be deleted, but not fred23 (more than one character) nor fred on its own (no character to match). Wildcards are widely used in commands and text searches. See also pattern matching.

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JOHN DAINTITH. "wildcard." A Dictionary of Computing. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

JOHN DAINTITH. "wildcard." A Dictionary of Computing. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O11-wildcard.html

JOHN DAINTITH. "wildcard." A Dictionary of Computing. 2004. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O11-wildcard.html

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wildcard

A Dictionary of the Internet | 2001 | | Copyright

wildcard A character used in a SEARCH QUERY that can stand for a variety of STRINGS. The asterisk character is often used as a wild card so, for example, a search for Dav* would retrieve words such as Dave, David, Davina, and Davies.

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DARREL INCE. "wildcard." A Dictionary of the Internet. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

DARREL INCE. "wildcard." A Dictionary of the Internet. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O12-wildcard.html

DARREL INCE. "wildcard." A Dictionary of the Internet. 2001. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O12-wildcard.html

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