# Netdata simple patterns Unix prefers regular expressions. But they are just too hard, too cryptic to use, write and understand. So, Netdata supports **simple patterns**. Simple patterns are a space separated list of words, that can have `*` as a wildcard. Each world may use any number of `*`. Simple patterns allow **negative** matches by prefixing a word with `!`. So, `pattern = !*bad* *` will match anything, except all those that contain the word `bad`. Simple patterns are quite powerful: `pattern = *foobar* !foo* !*bar *` matches everything containing `foobar`, except strings that start with `foo` or end with `bar`. You can use the Netdata command line to check simple patterns, like this: ```sh # netdata -W simple-pattern '*foobar* !foo* !*bar *' 'hello world' RESULT: MATCHED - pattern '*foobar* !foo* !*bar *' matches 'hello world' # netdata -W simple-pattern '*foobar* !foo* !*bar *' 'hello world bar' RESULT: NOT MATCHED - pattern '*foobar* !foo* !*bar *' does not match 'hello world bar' # netdata -W simple-pattern '*foobar* !foo* !*bar *' 'hello world foobar' RESULT: MATCHED - pattern '*foobar* !foo* !*bar *' matches 'hello world foobar' ``` Netdata stops processing to the first positive or negative match (left to right). If it is not matched by either positive or negative patterns, it is denied at the end.