How to check in shell script if string variable contains a wildcard?

Question

I'm trying to check if string contains any wildcards. Here is my failing attempt:

#!/bin/bash
WILDCARDS='* . ? !  ] [' 
a="foo*bar"
for x in $REJECTED_WILDCARDS
do 
    if [[ "$a" == *"$x"* ]]
    then 
            echo "It's there!";
    fi 
done

Any suggestions?

Why is . included in the list?

choroba
– choroba

2013-04-23 15:57:28 +00:00
Commented Apr 23, 2013 at 15:57 — choroba
– choroba, Commented Apr 23, 2013 at 15:57

Fritz G. Mehner · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-23 18:55:31Z

5

Slightly shorter and without a loop:

if [ "$a" != "${a//[\[\]|.? +*]/}"  ] ; then
  echo "wildcard found"
fi

The parameter substitution deletes all wildcards. The strings are than no longer equal.

answered Apr 23, 2013 at 18:55

Fritz G. Mehner

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1 Comment

Alexandros Over a year ago

I like this approach better.

iruvar · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-23 15:56:17Z

4

Set wildcards into a bash array, like so

wildcards=( '*' '.' '?' '|' ']' '[' )

Then

a="foo*bar"
for wildcard in "${wildcards[@]}";
do
  if [[ $a == *"${wildcard}"* ]];
  then
    echo 'yes';
  fi;
 done

answered Apr 23, 2013 at 15:56

iruvar

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2 Comments

Giorgi Gviani Over a year ago

Great, this is what I've been looking for. Out of curiosity how do I add single quote to this list?

iruvar Over a year ago

@user52028778, use double-quotes to quote it, like this: wildcards=( '*' '.' '?' '|' ']' '[', "'" )

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