How do use wildcards in command prompt?

Question

This page on Command Line Syntax says I can use something like *.txt to search for a file.

For example, folder Z contains a.txt, b.txt, c.doc, etc.

Now, after I've changed the working directory to Z, what follows next?

It seems that I can't type that straightaway, as this will give me the following:

'*.txt' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

How do I go about doing it?

Answer 1

Well the wildcard isn't the command :). The command to list the directory contents in the windows console is dir. So you'd have:

dir *.txt

Answer 2

The link is explaining that 7-zip does not use DOS style wildcards. For example on a DOS or Windows command shell:

dir *.txt

will list all files ending in txt, and:

dir *.*

will list all files in the folder. On a UNIX/LINUX shell, the equivalent commands are:

ls *.txt

and

ls *

DOS/Windows files have a 3 character extension, and the . (dot) is used to separate the name from the extension. On Linux and UNIX, there is no extension, but it is common practice to include a . (dot) in the filename followed by one or more characters. On a UNIX system, saying:

ls *.*

will only list files which have a . (dot) in the name.

7Zip uses the Linux/UNIX style of wildcard.