title: .NET, Syntax for '<' and '>' wildcards in search pattern when EnumerationOptions MatchType = MatchType.Win32
body: <p>The .NET documentation for MatchType.Win32 for Net-Core and Net 5+ versions says:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>Match using Win32 DOS style matching semantics.<br/>
  '*', '?', '&lt;', '&gt;', and '&quot;' are all considered wildcards. Matches in a traditional DOS / Windows command prompt way.</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p><a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.io.matchtype?view=net-6.0" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.io.matchtype?view=net-6.0</a></p>
  <p>How do you use the syntax for the '&lt;' and '&gt;' wildcards? I can not find that anywhere and the only thing I can find about DOS is the '*' and '?' wildcards. I know in Windows Explorer you can do a search like &quot;date:&gt;01/01/2021&quot; but that is more of an operator than a wildcard and gives a syntax exception if using it with</p>
  <pre><code>var query = Directory.EnumerateDirectories(
         basefolder,
         &quot;date:&gt;01/01/2021&quot;, 
         new EnumerationOptions() { MatchType = MatchType.Win32 });
  </code></pre>
  <p>Passing regular old &quot;*&quot; as <code>searchPattern</code> still returns all entries, trying to pass &quot;&lt;&quot; or &quot;&gt;&quot; alone as <code>searchPattern</code> did not produce any results on folders I tried.</p>