Performs a wild-card pattern match on a string
(wcmatch string pattern)
Arguments
A string to be compared. The comparison is case-sensitive, so uppercase and lowercase characters must match.
A string containing the pattern to match against string. The pattern can contain the wild-card pattern-matching characters shown in the table Wild-card characters. You can use commas in a pattern to enter more than one pattern condition. Only the first 500 characters (approximately) of the string and pattern are compared; anything beyond that is ignored.
Both arguments can be either a quoted string or a string variable. It is valid to use variables and values returned from AutoLISP functions for string and pattern values.
Return Values
If string and pattern match, wcmatch returns T; otherwise, wcmatch returns nil.
|
Wild-card characters |
|
|---|---|
|
Character |
Definition |
|
#β(pound) |
Matches any single numeric digit. |
|
@β(at) |
Matches any single alphabetic character. |
|
.β(period) |
Matches any single nonalphanumeric character. |
|
*β(asterisk) |
Matches any character sequence, including an empty one, and it can be used anywhere in the search pattern: at the beginning, middle, or end. |
|
?β(question mark) |
Matches any single character. |
|
~β(tilde) |
If it is the first character in the pattern, it matches anything except the pattern. |
|
[...] |
Matches any one of the characters enclosed. |
|
[~...] |
Matches any single character not enclosed. |
|
-β(hyphen) |
Used inside brackets to specify a range for a single character. |
|
,β(comma) |
Separates two patterns. |
|
`β(reverse quote) |
Escapes special characters (reads next character literally). |
Examples
The following command tests a string to see if it begins with the character N:
Command: (wcmatch "Name" "N*")
T
The following example performs three comparisons. If any of the three pattern conditions is met, wcmatch returns T. The tests are:
If any of the three pattern conditions is met, wcmatch returns T:
Command: (wcmatch "Name" "???,~*m*,N*")
T
In this example, the last condition was met, so wcmatch returned T.
Using Escape Characters with wcmatch
To test for a wild-card character in a string, you can use the single reverse-quote character (`) to escape the character. Escape means that the character following the single reverse quote is not read as a wild-card character; it is compared at its face value. For example, to search for a comma anywhere in the string βNameβ, enter the following:
Command: (wcmatch "Name" "*`,*")
nil
Both the C and AutoLISP programming languages use the backslash (\) as an escape character, so you need two backslashes (\\) to produce one backslash in a string. To test for a backslash character anywhere in βNameβ, use the following function call:
Command: (wcmatch "Name" "*`\\*")
nil
All characters enclosed in brackets ([ . . . ]) are read literally, so there is no need to escape them, with the following exceptions: the tilde character (~) is read literally only when it is not the first bracketed character (as in "[A~BC]"); otherwise, it is read as the negation character, meaning that wcmatch should match all characters except those following the tilde (as in "[~ABC]"). The dash character (-) is read literally only when it is the first or last bracketed character (as in "[-ABC]" or "[ABC-]") or when it follows a leading tilde (as in "[~-ABC]"). Otherwise, the dash character (-) is used within brackets to specify a range of values for a specific character. The range works only for single characters, so "STR[1-38]" matches STR1, STR2, STR3, and STR8, and "[A-Z]" matches any single uppercase letter.
The closing bracket character (]) is also read literally if it is the first bracketed character or if it follows a leading tilde (as in "[ ]ABC]" or "[~]ABC]").
