Tests a string for a pattern string. Because the pattern string can contain a number of "wildcard" characters and logical symbols, you can test for complex character patterns.

Syntax

@Matches( string ; pattern )

Parameters

string

Text or text list. The string you want to scan in quotes. You can also enter the field name of a field that contains the string you want to scan; do not surround the field name in quotes.

Text or text list. The pattern you want to scan for in string surrounded by quotation marks. May contain wildcard characters and symbols (see table below). The following symbols require a preceding backslash unless the pattern is enclosed in braces { } as a set: ?, *, &, !, |, \, +. The symbols require two preceding backslashes instead of one if the pattern is specified as a literal. This is because the backslash is an escape character in string literals, so "\?" passes "?" to the matching engine, where it is treated as a wildcard, while "\\?" passes "\?" to the matching engine, where it is treated as a question mark character.

Note Simple characters in the pattern are not case-sensitive. Characters enclosed in braces must be matched exactly, and are case-sensitive. The character set {A-z} includes not just upper and lower case alphabet characters but also the backslash, underscore, and square brackets characters.

flag

Boolean
• Returns 1 (True) if the string contains the pattern
• Returns 0 (False) if the string does not contain the pattern

Examples of pattern matching:

Pattern	Matches
ABC	The three-character string [a|A][b|B][c|C]
{ABC}{ABC}	Any two-character string composed of capital letters A, B, or C
A?C	Any three-character string that starts with a|A and ends with c|C
???	Any three-character string
+?	Any string, including the null string
+?{A-Z}	Any string that ends in a capital letter
+{!A-Z}	Any string that does not contain a capital letter

Usage

If the first or second parameter is a list, the function returns true if any element in the second parameter matches any element in the first parameter.

Language cross-reference

Like operator of LotusScript language

Example
See Also

Concatenating, comparing, and determining length

Glossary