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Need to find files quickly using a search pattern? The * (asterisk/star) is your wildcard hero! It's used in command lines, programming, and even GUI file managers to match any sequence of characters.

🔧 1. Command Line (Shell / CMD)

The * wildcard helps list or find files easily.

🐧 Unix/Linux/macOS

bash

ls *          # lists all files and folders
ls *.txt      # lists all files ending in .txt
ls data*      # matches files like data.csv, data1.txt, data_report.pdf

🪟 Windows Command Prompt

cmd

dir *         # lists all files and folders
dir *.jpg     # lists all .jpg files
dir file*.*   # matches file.txt, file123.csv, file_report.docx

🐍 2. In Programming (e.g., Python with glob)

Use glob for file pattern matching in scripts.

python

import glob

# Get all .txt files in current directory
for file in glob.glob("*.txt"):
    print(file)

Or recursively:

python

import glob

# Get all .java files in subdirectories too
for file in glob.glob("**/*.java", recursive=True):
    print(file)

💻 3. Java File Search Using *

Java doesn't directly support glob with * via File, but you can use java.nio.file:

java

import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.*;
import java.util.stream.Stream;

public class FileSearchExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        Path dir = Paths.get(".");
        try (Stream<Path> stream = Files.newDirectoryStream(dir, "*.txt").stream()) {
            stream.forEach(System.out::println);
        }
    }
}

Or use Files.walk + endsWith:

java

Files.walk(Paths.get("."))
     .filter(path -> path.toString().endsWith(".txt"))
     .forEach(System.out::println);

🗂️ 4. File Managers

Many GUI file explorers (Windows, macOS Finder, Linux file managers) support *:

• *.pdf → finds all PDFs
• report* → finds report1.docx, report_final.pdf
• *log* → matches any file with "log" in its name

✅ Summary

ContextExampleDescriptionShell/CMDls *.txtAll .txt filesPython (glob)glob("*.csv")Matches all .csv filesJavanewDirectoryStream("*.log")Files ending in .logGUI File Manager*data*All files with "data" in name

The * wildcard means “match anything”—so it’s your go-to for flexible file filtering.