Commodore 1541-II - Pattern Matching and Wild Cards

LOAD"$0:* = S",8
will load a directory of all sequential files, while the Basic 3.5 command:
DIRECTORY,4 4A* = R"
will display a directory consisting only of relative files beginning with the letter "A".
The possible file types, and their abbreviations for this use are:
P = Program
S = Sequential
R = Relative
U = User
D = Deleted
A = Append
M = Modify
PATTERN MATCHING AND WILD CARDS
Just as cassette users can load programs without giving a full name, disk users can
use special pattern matching characters to load a program from a partial name. The same
characters can also be used to provide selective directories. The two special characters
used in pattern matching are the asterisk (*) and the question mark (?). They act
something like a wild card in a game of cards. The difference between the two is that the
asterisk makes all characters in and beyond its position wild, while the question mark only
makes its own character position wild. Here are some examples, and their results:
LOAD "A*",8 loads the first file on disk that begins with an "A", regardless of
what follows. "ARTIST", "ARTERY", and "AZURE" would all qualify, but
"BARRY" wouldn't, even though it has an "A" elsewhere in its name.
DLOAD "SM7TH" (Basic 3.5) loads the first program that starts with "SM", ends
with "TH", and has one other character between. This would load "SMITH" or
"SMYTH", but not "SMYTHE"
OPEN 8,8,2;4R?C*,S,R" We'll study Open in Chapter 5, but the pattern used here
means that the selected file will begin with an "R" and have a "C" in the third character
of its name.
DIRECTORY,"Q*" (Basic 3.5) will load a directory of files whose names begin
with "Q".
LOAD "*",8 and DLOAD "*" are special cases. When an asterisk is used alone as
a name, it matches the last file used. If none have been used yet on the current diskette
since turning on the drive, using the asterisk alone loads the first program on the diskette.
10 INPUT A$:LOAD A$+"*",8 loads any file whose name starts with the
characters entered in A$.
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