User:K6ka/IRC handbook/Wildcards

So you are probably wondering... what the heck is a wildcard?

In computing, a wildcard is a special character that the computer may interpret as any character in a search or command. On IRC, wildcards are particularly useful for searching and for ban setting.

IRC supports two types of wildcards:  and.

*
The  (asterisk) wildcard is a powerful wildcard. It can either mean no characters, a single character, or many characters.

For example, searching for  will match the following search terms:

fire fireplace firestone firework fire_eating fire_juggling

Searching for  produces this:

fire_eating fire_juggling

The * can get pretty wild at times. For example, if you set a ban on, you'd ban everyone using the nicks:

fod food fold faded fainthearted famished farced feliz_navidad

And a whole lot more.

?
The  wildcard can be used to substitute for any single character; that is, a single character must exist to replace it. It won't accept a non-existent character or more than one character.

For example, searching for  will bring up:

wikipedia wikimedia

Banning  will ban anyone using the nicks:

buck duck huck luck muck puck ruck suck tuck yuck