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Wildcard string compare (globbing)

By , 15 Feb 2005
 

Usage:

This is a fast, lightweight, and simple pattern matching function.

if (wildcmp("bl?h.*", "blah.jpg")) {
  //we have a match!
} else {
  //no match =(
}

Function:

int wildcmp(const char *wild, const char *string) {
  // Written by Jack Handy - <A href="mailto:jakkhandy@hotmail.com">jakkhandy@hotmail.com</A>
  const char *cp = NULL, *mp = NULL;

  while ((*string) && (*wild != '*')) {
    if ((*wild != *string) && (*wild != '?')) {
      return 0;
    }
    wild++;
    string++;
  }

  while (*string) {
    if (*wild == '*') {
      if (!*++wild) {
        return 1;
      }
      mp = wild;
      cp = string+1;
    } else if ((*wild == *string) || (*wild == '?')) {
      wild++;
      string++;
    } else {
      wild = mp;
      string = cp++;
    }
  }

  while (*wild == '*') {
    wild++;
  }
  return !*wild;
}

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here

About the Author

Jack Handy
Web Developer
United States United States
Member
No Biography provided

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Comments and Discussions

 
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QuestionI used this function but I how I can catch variables from the * ???membermoh.hijjawi20 Oct '09 - 1:55 
Dear Jack,
Dear all,
 
I used this function in comparing two strings the first is Pattern(* KK *) and the second is Text(TT KK ZZ) and the function return pass. thats briliant,but my question how I can edit the function to be able to catch or handle the characters of matched * to save them in variables. for example:
 
X = TT
Y = ZZ
 
to deal with them later on in my system.
 
I tried many times but its not working well so far.
 
So please any one have an idea to do that please let me know and its will be appreciated.
 
Best Regards.
AnswerRe: I used this function but I how I can catch variables from the * ???memberRenniePet1 Apr '10 - 11:27 
It would be easiest if you use regular expressions instead of this function.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.text.regularexpressions.matchcollection.aspx[^]

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