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A wildcard in computing is a special character that stands in for one or more unknown characters in a search or pattern-matching operation. They are used to find and manipulate files, data, or text, even when you don't know the exact spelling or all the details. Common wildcards include the asterisk (\(*\)), which can represent any number of characters, and the question mark (\(?\)), which represents a single character. 

Common uses

File searching: Finding all files with a certain pattern, like *.txt to find all text files.

Data filtering: Locating specific data in databases or spreadsheets when the exact term is unknown.

Text editing: Finding and replacing multiple instances of a pattern in a document.

Regular expressions: In more complex pattern matching, characters like . (dot) can act as a wildcard for any single character.