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| Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) |
What are wildcards, and how do I use them?
Wildcards are special characters that enable you to generalise the killfile filters used. For example, they enable you to killfile emails originating from an entire internet provider, rather than having to kill many addresses individually (see this page for suggestions on what killfile filters to use). Wildcards are best illustrated by example. The first table below is a simple list of the available wildcards, and the second gives some examples of how they work. It is probable that you will mainly want to use the first two wildcards from the first table. You will not need to use the last wildcard (square brackets) unless you wish to form complex filters. A full description of how to use this last wildcard is too complex for inclusion here, although some specific uses for this wildcard that you may find useful are discussed here.
| Wildcard | Description |
| ? | Matches any single character |
| * | Matches any string of zero or more characters |
| # | Matches any single digit |
| [ ] | Matches characters inside the bracket |
| Example usage | Some possible matches |
| t?me | time, tame, tome |
| *aim |
aim, maim, claim, acclaim (remember that * matches any string of characters, including nothing at all) |
| *.com.?? |
foo@bar.com.tw, foo@bar.foobar.com.jp (but not foo@bar.com) |
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