One example of how to use pattern matching is in the Membership Conflicts dialog box. You can use Java™ regular expressions and enter either of the following filter values in the Membership Conflicts dialog box Filter field:
Any string that starts with ^ is treated as a regular expression using the normal Java regular expression rules. The following are some examples:
^$ matches a blank value since ^ means match the start of the line, and $ means match the end of the line
^Extra.* matches any line starting with the string Extra. This setting is different from the exact substring Extra, which matches that string in any position within the line.
^.*Extra.* matches the string Extra anywhere in the line.
^T..k matches a string that starts with T followed by two characters followed by k (the period character matches any single character).
Java regular expressions are defined in the Javadoc for Pattern website and on the Sun Developer Network page of the Oracle website.
Any string that does not start with ^ is treated as an exact substring. For example, if you enter as it matches values such as Bad Task, Extra Task, Missing Task. If you enter the string a.b it matches the substring anywhere in the line including aaa.b, a.bbbb, a a a a.b b b b. The substring is always interpreted literally.