Use Wild-Card Patterns in Selection Set Filter Criteria

Symbol names and strings in selection filters can include wild-card patterns.

The following table identifies the wild-card characters recognized by AutoCAD, and what each means in the context of a string:

Wild-card characters
Character	Definition
# (pound)	Matches any single numeric digit
@ (at)	Matches any single alphabetic character
. (period)	Matches any single non-alphanumeric character
* (asterisk)	Matches any character sequence, including an empty one, and it can be used anywhere in the search pattern: at the beginning, middle, or end
? (question mark)	Matches any single character
~ (tilde)	If it is the first character in the pattern, it matches anything except the pattern
[...]	Matches any one of the characters enclosed
[~...]	Matches any single character not enclosed
- (hyphen)	Used inside brackets to specify a range for a single character
, (comma)	Separates two patterns
` (reverse quote)	Escapes special characters (reads next character literally)

Use a reverse quote (`) to indicate that a character is not a wildcard, but is to be taken literally. For example, to specify that only an anonymous block named “*U2” be included in the selection set, use the value“`*U2”.

Select MText where a specific word appears in the text

The following example defines a selection filter that selects MText objects that contain the text string of “The”.

VB.NET

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.EditorInput

<CommandMethod("FilterMtextWildcard")> _

Public Sub FilterMtextWildcard()

  '' Get the current document editor

  Dim acDocEd As Editor = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument.Editor

  '' Create a TypedValue array to define the filter criteria

  Dim acTypValAr(1) As TypedValue

  acTypValAr.SetValue(New TypedValue(DxfCode.Start, "MTEXT"), 0)

  acTypValAr.SetValue(New TypedValue(DxfCode.Text, "*The*"), 1)

  '' Assign the filter criteria to a SelectionFilter object

  Dim acSelFtr As SelectionFilter = New SelectionFilter(acTypValAr)

  '' Request for objects to be selected in the drawing area

  Dim acSSPrompt As PromptSelectionResult

  acSSPrompt = acDocEd.GetSelection(acSelFtr)

  '' If the prompt status is OK, objects were selected

  If acSSPrompt.Status = PromptStatus.OK Then

      Dim acSSet As SelectionSet = acSSPrompt.Value

      Application.ShowAlertDialog("Number of objects selected: " & _

                                  acSSet.Count.ToString())

  Else

      Application.ShowAlertDialog("Number of objects selected: 0")

  End If

End Sub

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime;

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices;

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices;

using Autodesk.AutoCAD.EditorInput;

[CommandMethod("FilterMtextWildcard")]

public static void FilterMtextWildcard()

  // Get the current document editor

  Editor acDocEd = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument.Editor;

  // Create a TypedValue array to define the filter criteria

  TypedValue[] acTypValAr = new TypedValue[2];

  acTypValAr.SetValue(new TypedValue((int)DxfCode.Start, "MTEXT"), 0);

  acTypValAr.SetValue(new TypedValue((int)DxfCode.Text, "*The*"), 1);

  // Assign the filter criteria to a SelectionFilter object

  SelectionFilter acSelFtr = new SelectionFilter(acTypValAr);

  // Request for objects to be selected in the drawing area

  PromptSelectionResult acSSPrompt;

  acSSPrompt = acDocEd.GetSelection(acSelFtr);

  // If the prompt status is OK, objects were selected

  if (acSSPrompt.Status == PromptStatus.OK)

      SelectionSet acSSet = acSSPrompt.Value;

      Application.ShowAlertDialog("Number of objects selected: " +

                                  acSSet.Count.ToString());

  else

      Application.ShowAlertDialog("Number of objects selected: 0");

VBA/ActiveX Code Reference