What does entering "*" do with an input file?

Entering "*" in an input file context serves a specific purpose related to pattern matching. When you use this symbol, you are utilizing a wildcard character that allows the system to match any sequence of characters before and after it. This means that if you include it with other characters, the system will look for all entries that start with the specified characters and can follow with any other characters that come afterward. This is particularly useful for searching or filtering data because it enables a broad and flexible search criterion, which can retrieve a wide range of relevant information in one go.

The use of "" thus streamlines the process of data retrieval by allowing users to include variations of data based on their prefixes or suffixes. This is fundamentally different from bringing in a specific set of characters, which would limit the results, or from filtering out unwanted data, which narrows the dataset based on exclusion criteria. Additionally, while the concept of wildcard searching is related, it is the specific matching function of "" before and after other characters that defines the correct answer.