TOPIC
	about_Wildcards

SHORT DESCRIPTION
	Describes how to use wildcard characters in Windows 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 that have 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. 

	Windows PowerShell supports the following wildcard characters.


		Wildcard Description		Example  Match			 No match
		-------- ------------------ -------- ----------------- --------
		*		Matches zero or	a*	 A, ag, Apple	banana
				 more characters

		?		Matches exactly	?n	 an, in, on		ran
				 one character in 
				 the specified 
				 position

		[ ]	Matches a range	[a-l]ook book, cook, look  took
				 of characters
 
		[ ]	Matches specified  [bc]ook  book, cook		hook
				 characters

	You can include multiple wildcard characters in the same word pattern.
	For example, to find text files whose names 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, if any, permit 
	wildcard characters. For parameters in which wildcard characters are 
	accepted, their use is case-insensitive. 
   
	You can also 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, wildcard characters are used to find property values
	in the conditions of an If statement. In this command, if the Description of a
	restore point includes "PowerShell", the command adds the value of the CreationTime
	property of the restore point 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)"}}
			 

SEE ALSO
	about_Language_Keywords
	about_If
	about_Script_Blocks