Proper use of asterisk

Question

Dumb question on my part. I have used a '*' many many times, but for the life of me I cannot remember how.

Example: Text in ComboBox1 is iPad Setup Guide 2015 I want to keep it generic in the code (so if it changes to 2016)

Code I have:

If ComboBox1.Text = "iPad Setup Guide" Then

Code I tried:

If ComboBox1.Text = "iPad Setup Guide*" Then
If ComboBox1.Text = "iPad Setup Guide" + "*" Then

What am I forgetting?

Thanks,

Answer 1

I believe you are thinking of VB.NET's Like operator:

If ComboBox1.Text Like "iPad Setup Guide*" Then
    ' ...
End If

However, for more powerful pattern matching, you may also want to consider using RegEx:

If RegEx.IsMatch(ComboBox1.Text, "Pad Setup Guide.") Then
    ' ...
End If 

Answer 2

Use Instr

If InStr(ComboBox1.Text, "iPad Setup Guide") > 0 Then

You could also use LEFT if you wanted to only get things starting with the string as opposed to the string appearing in.