Wildcards

Multiple jobs can be selected and copied using the * (asterisk) wildcard character to represent multiple values. The asterisk is used to represent zero or more alphanumeric characters. An asterisk can also be used to replace characters in the middle of an expression.

NOTE: Only one asterisk can be used in an expression.

EXAMPLE 1:

The job name of a specific job definition is AAABBB. If you include the any of the following arguments in an updatedef utility argument file, you select job AAABBB:

<JOB_NAME FROM="AAABBB"/>

<JOB_NAME FROM="*BBB"/>

<JOB_NAME FROM="AAA*"/>

EXAMPLE 2:

There are three job processing definitions. Their Job Names are:

AAABBB, AAACCC, and BBBCCC

The following argument selects jobs AAACCC and BBBCCC, and selects any other jobs with a Job Name that ends with the letters CCC.

<JOB_NAME FROM="*CCC"/>

The asterisk has a special function when used in find and replace operations in selected utilities. The following utilities use find and replace operations:

• copydefcal
• copydefjob
• duplicatedefjob
• updatedef

In the FROM (find) statement of an argument, an asterisk replaces a text string (as shown in the example above). The asterisk in the TO statement of the argument represents the same string as the asterisk in the FROM statement of the argument. The placement of the asterisk can be changed.

EXAMPLE 1:

There are three job processing definitions:

AAABBB, AAACCC, BBBCCC

Modify the job names of some of these jobs using the following argument:

<JOB_NAME FROM="*CCC" TO="*DDD"/>

• Job AAACCC becomes Job AAADDD
• Job BBBCCC becomes Job BBBDDD
• Job AAABBB is not modified.

EXAMPLE 2:

There are three job processing definitions:

AAABBB, DDDCCC, BBBCCC

<JOB_NAME FROM="*CCC" TO="DDD*"/>

• Job DDDCCC becomes Job DDDDDD
• Job BBBCCC becomes Job DDDBBB
• Job AAABBB is not modified.