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so the problem is: why does a_[a-z]*_data match a_clean_0db_data?

this can be broken down into four parts:

• a_ matches the beginning of a_clean_0db_data, leaving clean_0db_data to be matched

• [a-z] matches any character in the range a-z (e.g. c), leaving lean_0db_data to be matched

• * matches any number of characters, e.g. lean_0db

• _data matches the trailing _data

in regular expressions [a-z]* would mean any number of characters (including zero) in the range of a..z, but you are dealing with shell globbing, not with regular expressions.

if you want regular expressions, a few find implementations have a -regex predicate for that:

find . -maxdepth 1 -regex "^.*/a_[a-z]*_data$" 

the -maxdepth is only here to limit the search-results to the folder you are in. the regular expression matches the entire filename, therefore I have added a ^.*/ to match the path-portion

So the problem is: why does a_[a-z]*_data match a_clean_0db_data?

This can be broken down into four parts:

• a_ matches the beginning of a_clean_0db_data, leaving clean_0db_data to be matched

• [a-z] matches any character in the range a-z (e.g. c), leaving lean_0db_data to be matched

• * matches any number of characters, e.g. lean_0db

• _data matches the trailing _data

In regular expressions, [a-z]* would mean any number of characters (including zero) in the range of a..z, but you are dealing with shell globbing, not with regular expressions.

If you want regular expressions, a few find implementations have a -regex predicate for that:

find . -maxdepth 1 -regex "^.*/a_[a-z]*_data$" 

The -maxdepth is only here to limit the search-results to the folder you are in. The regular expression matches the entire filename, therefore I have added a ^.*/ to match the path-portion

so the problem is: why does a_[a-z]*_data match a_clean_0db_data?

this can be broken down into four parts:

• a_ matches the beginning of a_clean_0db_data, leaving clean_0db_data to be matched

• [a-z] matches any character in the range a-z (e.g. c), leaving lean_0db_data to be matched

• * matches any number of characters, e.g. lean_0db

• _data matches the trailing _data

in regular expression [a-z]* would mean any number of characters in the range of a..z, but you are dealing with shell globbing, not with regular expressions.

if you want regular expressions, a few find implementations have a -regex predicate for that:

find . -maxdepth 1 -regex "^.*/a_[a-z]*_data$" 

the -maxdepth is only here to limit the search-results to the folder you are in. the regular expression matches the entire filename, therefore I have added a ^.*/ to match the path-portion

so the problem is: why does a_[a-z]*_data match a_clean_0db_data?

this can be broken down into four parts:

• a_ matches the beginning of a_clean_0db_data, leaving clean_0db_data to be matched

• [a-z] matches any character in the range a-z (e.g. c), leaving lean_0db_data to be matched

• * matches any number of characters, e.g. lean_0db

• _data matches the trailing _data

in regular expressions [a-z]* would mean any number of characters (including zero) in the range of a..z, but you are dealing with shell globbing, not with regular expressions.

if you want regular expressions, a few find implementations have a -regex predicate for that:

find . -maxdepth 1 -regex "^.*/a_[a-z]*_data$" 

the -maxdepth is only here to limit the search-results to the folder you are in. the regular expression matches the entire filename, therefore I have added a ^.*/ to match the path-portion

so the problem is: why does a_[a-z]*_data match a_clean_0db_data?

this can be broken down into four parts:

• a_ matches the beginning of a_clean_0db_data, leaving clean_0db_data to be matched

• [a-z] matches any character in the range a-z (e.g. c), leaving lean_0db_data to be matched

• * matches any number of characters, e.g. lean_0db

• _data matches the trailing _data

in regular expression [a-z]* would mean *any number of characters in the range of a..z`, but you are dealing with shell globbing, not with regular expressions.

if you want regular expressions, you could use find:

find . -maxdepth 1 -regex "^.*/a_[a-z]*_data$" 

the -maxdepth is only here to limit the search-results to the folder you are in. the regular expression matches the entire filename, therefore I have added a ^.*/ to match the path-portion

so the problem is: why does a_[a-z]*_data match a_clean_0db_data?

this can be broken down into four parts:

• a_ matches the beginning of a_clean_0db_data, leaving clean_0db_data to be matched

• [a-z] matches any character in the range a-z (e.g. c), leaving lean_0db_data to be matched

• * matches any number of characters, e.g. lean_0db

• _data matches the trailing _data

in regular expression [a-z]* would mean any number of characters in the range of a..z, but you are dealing with shell globbing, not with regular expressions.

if you want regular expressions, a few find implementations have a -regex predicate for that:

find . -maxdepth 1 -regex "^.*/a_[a-z]*_data$" 

the -maxdepth is only here to limit the search-results to the folder you are in. the regular expression matches the entire filename, therefore I have added a ^.*/ to match the path-portion