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A Filename skeleton is a character string used as a template to search for matching filenames. It consists of an optional directory path followed by a backslash, \, followed by a filename template. The template can contain a mix of required characters plus the wildcard, or "placeholder", characters ? and *.

C:\MyFile.txt

C:\MyFile*.*

C:\??File.txt

A wildcard character can be used to represent any character that occupies the same position in the filename. A question mark, ?, will match any single character. An asterisk, *, will match any group of characters.

Any other characters in the template must exactly match the filenames' character, and its' position, to be considered a match.

For example:

 

*.*

All filenames are matches.

*. Specifies that any group of characters to the left of the period are valid matches.

.* Specifies that any group of characters to the right of the period are valid matches.

*.txt

All files with an extension of .txt are matches.

MyTable.*

All files, regardless of their extension, whose base name is MyTable are matches.

A?c.wf?

All files starting with an A, followed by any character, followed by a c.wf and ending in any character are matches.

C:\myfolder\*.dbf

All files in folder C:\myfolder with a .dbf extension are matches.