Aca20031 at 16:51, 31 July 2009

2009-07-31T16:51:43Z

New page

Wildcard characters is the name given to the special meta characters *, &, and ?. These characters are used to "match" strings of text without knowing exactly what will be said.

The characters are as follows:
* * - Matches anything. From nothing at all, to one letter, to one word, to several words.
* & - Matches one word. Does not include the space
* ? - Matches one letter (or other character such as a number or a special symbol)

==Using Wild Cards in Events==

Wild cards in mIRC are used most often in events, such as the [[on text]] event. The [[on text]] event's syntax is as follows:
on <level>:TEXT:<matchtext>:<*><?><#[,#]>:<commands>
(For more information on this event, see the [[on text|on text event page]], as it will not be covered in detail here.)

This event 'triggers' when someone types a line that matches "matchtext". By default, matchtext is a wildcard string. Common uses would be:

* !help - No wildcard characters. Matches ONLY the word "!help." will NOT match "!help topics"
* !help & - The & (word) matching character. Matches !help <anyword>. The word is required. Will NOT match "!help topics please"
* !help* - The * operator matches anything (and nothing). This format will match !help by itself, since * can match nothing. It will also match !helpmeplease or !help me please. It will NOT match ...!help because the * operator only follows !help.
* ?help - The ? operator here matches any character. So it will match "!help" "^help" "&help" etc etc. It will NOT match "help" by itself, or "!help please"

==More Examples==
; Matches !join #anything, for joining channels. Note this will also match !join #channel somethingelse
!join #*

; Matches !join <anything>. Note while this will match !join #foo, it will also match !join notachannel. It will not match !join #channel somethingelse
!join &

; Matches !join #anything. Unlike the use of the * operator, this will NOT match !join #channel somethingelse. It will also match @join #anything, *join #anything, etc.
?join #&

==See Also==
* [[If#iswm|iswm]] - using wild cards in [[If]] statements

[[Category:Tutorials]]

Wildcards - Revision history

Aca20031 at 16:51, 31 July 2009