Wildcards in Path Filters

When you are configuring a path filter, you need to enter all or part of a local machine path in the Path text box. That path or path fragment you enter must exactly match at least one path in the CAM database to have any effect when you run a report with this filter.

To make this easier, you can use the following wildcard and special characters when specifying a path:

• * is a wildcard character used to indicate zero or more characters in a folder name.
• ?  is a wildcard character used to indicate any single character in a folder name.
• [] is a character class that indicates some number of characters in this set or range in the folder name. For example, entering [a-z] indicates all folders that start with letters between a and z.
• [^] is a character class that indicates some number of characters not in this set or range, as long as the caret (^) is the first character after the left bracket. For example, entering [^aeiou] indicates any character except a vowel. Entering [a^y] indicates folder names that start with the letters a and y, and with the caret character itself.

Notes:

• Note that these are path filters, not full file specification filters. The path filter editor will append a backslash character (\) to any pattern that does not already have one. That is, the pattern

  C:\windows\*.*

  is interpreted and stored as

  C:\windows\*.*\

• You cannot use * or ? in character classes.
• You cannot use * or ? literally. These characters are always interpreted as wildcards.
• You can use the left bracket ([) and right bracket (]) characters literally, even within a character class. These characters are only interpreted as special characters when used together as a character class, enclosed in quotation marks.