Pattern-Matching Strings

The following table describes the characters and regular expression (regex) operators that enable you to search for character patterns or symbols in any Control-M filter, except for Application Pack plug-ins and Control-M MFT.

Symbol	Name	Usage
<Letter Character>	Letter Character	Matches the literal value of the letter character in your search. In case-sensitive fields, uppercase and lowercase characters, such as a and A, are regarded as two different characters.
*	Asterisk	Matches zero or more characters. You can use the * wildcard to match a whole string or any part of a string. * matches all values. a* matches a, aa, and aab. *ac matches abc and aabbcc*. If one or more of the filter criteria fields are not needed, it is more efficient to leave the field blank than to use the wildcard. However, at least one filter field must contain a value.
? or .	Question Mark or Period	Matches any single character in a string, and takes the place of that character. S?ring matches Spring and String. Pal. matches Pale and Pall.
!	Exclamation Point	Matches all strings except for the string that immediately follows the ! character. This enables you to define strings that must be excluded from your search. !Host_A matches all strings except for Host_A. *Host_A,!Host_A_East excludes Host_A_East and matches all strings that begin with Host_A**.
,	Comma	Splits the search string into separate searches. This enables you to define multiple search strings in one search. Do not include whitespace characters after , (commas). host01,host02,host03* matches the following strings: host01 host02 host03 host034 host03a The , (comma) is evaluated literally in collection and filter definition fields. The , represents a Boolean OR.
+	Plus	Matches one or more occurrences of a preceding character. ab+c matches abc, abbc, and abbbc.
( )	Parentheses	Matches groups of characters in a string, and you can use them with other symbols to define the scope of the search. (ab)+ matches one or more occurrences of the group ab, such as ab, abab, and ababab.
{n}	Curly Brackets (n Times)	Matches a defined number of occurrences (n) of a preceding character or group, where n defines any whole number. a{3} matches aaa. (ab){3} matches ababab.
\<Special Character>	Escape Character	Matches the literal value of special characters, as follows: You can search for the following special characters anywhere in a search string: ( ) [ ] { } . + ? ^ $ \| < > \ \\ (two backslash) characters search for one \, as follows: a\\b searches for a\b. \? (a backslash and a question mark) character searches for one ?, as follows: a\?b searches for a?b. You can only search for the following special characters when they appear at the beginning of a search string: , ! \! at the beginning of a search string searches for !, as follows: \!ab searches for !ab.