About Wildcards
SHORT DESCRIPTION
Describes how to use wildcard characters in PowerShell.
LONG DESCRIPTION
Wildcard characters represent one or many characters. You can use them to
create word patterns in commands. For example, to get all the files in the
C:\Techdocs directory with a .ppt file name extension, type:
Get-ChildItem C:\Techdocs\*.ppt
In this case, the asterisk (*) wildcard character represents any characters
that appear before the .ppt file name extension.
PowerShell supports the following wildcard characters:
| Wildcard | Description | Example | Match | No Match |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| * | Match zero or more characters | a* | aA, ag, Apple | banana |
| ? | Match one character in that position | ?n | an, in, on | ran |
| [ ] | Match a range of characters | [a-l]ook | book, cook, look | took |
| [ ] | Match specific characters | [bc]ook | book, cook | hook |
You can include multiple wildcard characters in the same word pattern. For example, to find text files with names that begin with the letters a through l, type:
Get-ChildItem C:\Techdocs\[a-l]*.txt
Many cmdlets accept wildcard characters in parameter values. The Help topic for each cmdlet describes which parameters accept wildcard characters. For parameters that accept wildcard characters, their use is case-insensitive.
You can use wildcard characters in commands and script blocks, such as to create a word pattern that represents property values. For example, the following command gets services in which the ServiceType property value includes Interactive.
Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.ServiceType -Like "*Interactive*"}
In the following example, the If statement includes a condition that uses
wildcard characters to find property values. If the restore point's
Description includes PowerShell, the command adds the value of the
restore point's CreationTime property to a log file.
$p = Get-ComputerRestorePoint
foreach ($point in $p) {
if ($point.description -like "*PowerShell*") {
Add-Content -Path C:\TechDocs\RestoreLog.txt "$($point.CreationTime)"
}
}