> "something\books.doc" matches both "*books.doc" and "*.doc" (identical to > original) > "something\else.doc only matches "*.doc" (again as per original) > I am not certain what your matching with but if you look "*." matches > anything before the dot whereas "*book." will only match anything ending > "book" (before the dot). Obviously I did not make my concern clear so I'll try again. using - apath\*books.doc - as the pattern would your code not also find - apath\anyname.doc - as a match Unfortunately, I don't have a C compiler installed so I can't test it myself. Angus