How to Use Wildcards in a String Search Routine

MORE INFORMATION

Sample Code

FUNCTION wcardfind
PARAMETER srchstr, wildcard, longstr
STORE 0    TO ifoundat
STORE LEN(longstr) TO ilongstrlen
STORE LEN(ALLT(srchstr)) TO isrchstrlen
STORE ilongstrlen - isrchstrlen TO ilastoffset
STORE isrchstrlen - LEN(ALLT(STRTRAN(srchstr, wildcard, ""))) ;
   TO inumwcards
STORE .F. TO lfound
STORE 0   TO isrchoffset
STORE (ilongstrlen > isrchstrlen) AND ;
   (LEN(wildcard)=1) AND (isrchstrlen>0) TO ok
DO WHILE (! isrchoffset > ilastoffset) AND (! lfound) AND ok
   STORE 0 TO imatch
   FOR LOOP = 1 TO isrchstrlen
      IF ASC(SUBSTR(srchstr,LOOP,1)) = ;
           ASC(SUBSTR(longstr,LOOP+isrchoffset,1))
         imatch=imatch+1
      ENDIF
   ENDFOR
   IF imatch+inumwcards = isrchstrlen
      lfound = .T.
      ifoundat = isrchoffset+1
   ELSE
      isrchoffset=isrchoffset+1
   ENDIF
ENDDO
RETURN IIF(lfound,ifoundat,0)
				

Testing the Function

   x1="d?f"
   x2="?"
   x3="abcdefgh"
   xresult=wcardfind(x1,x2,x3)
   wait wind str(xresult)