Q68268: Simulating Wildcards

Article: Q68268
Product(s): Microsoft Disk Operating System
Version(s): MS-DOS:3.x,4.x,5.x,6.0,6.2,6.21,6.22
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): 
Last Modified: 17-DEC-2000

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft MS-DOS operating system versions 3.1, 3.2, 3.21, 3.3, 3.3a, 4.0, 4.01, 5.0, 5.0a, 6.0, 6.2, 6.21, 6.22 
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SUMMARY
=======

You can simulate wildcards with the FOR command for those commands in MS-DOS
that do not allow wildcards. The structure of the command is as follows

     for %p in (set) do (command) %p

where %p is a variable used by the FOR command, (set) is a set of filenames that
command will be applied to, and command is the command to be carried out. For
example:

     for %p in (*.txt) do type %p

  -or-

     for %p in (*.txt) do find "CONFIG" %p

MORE INFORMATION
================

You may want to create a batch file for this command because it will be much
shorter. However, unlike the command-line version of the FOR command, the
batch-file version uses two percent signs (%). The following are two batch-file
examples:

     for %%p in (%1) do type %%p

  -or-

     for %%p in (%1) do find "%2" %%p

Using the second batch-file example, the following command typed at the MS-DOS
prompt finds every file ending with the .TXT extension that has the string
"CONFIG" in it. The quotation marks ("%2") are specific to the FIND command and
not necessarily part of the FOR command syntax. If the second example is in a
batch file called FF.BAT, to invoking the batch-file command, type:

     ff *.txt CONFIG"

Additional query words: 6.22 3.x 4.00 4.01 5.00 5.00a 6.00 6.20 wild card

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Keywords          :  
Technology        : kbMSDOSSearch kbMSDOS321 kbMSDOS400 kbMSDOS320 kbMSDOS330a kbMSDOS621 kbMSDOS622 kbMSDOS620 kbMSDOS600 kbMSDOS310 kbMSDOS500 kbMSDOS330 kbMSDOS401 kbMSDOS500a
Version           : MS-DOS:3.x,4.x,5.x,6.0,6.2,6.21,6.22

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