Thank you everybody for your thoughts. It would appear however that the answer to my original question (re wildcards) a "not possible" is. But the alternatives you've given me contain some food for thought.
As I'm not an Excel-expert as such, but more an interested 'trial and error' type, I'll need a little time to analyze your solutions and, if possible, adapt them to my needs.
Once again many thanks and, of course, should anyone else have a possible solution, would like to hear from you.
Kersmus