Untitled

2-parter; in Javascript - detect special chars and replace all * with %
var pattern = '?[a-zA-Z0-9*][a-zA-Z0-9*]*';

var pattern = "^[a-zA-Z0-9*]*$";
var regEx = new RegExp(pattern);
if(regEx.test(searchText) === true) {
    return true;
}

var newString = "foo*bar*baz".replace(/*/g, "%");

s = 'foo*bar*baz';
s = s.replace(/*/g, '%');
// now s == 'foo%bar%baz'

/?[a-zA-Z0-9*][a-zA-Z0-9*]*/

var pattern = /[a-zA-Z0-9*][a-zA-Z0-9*]*/;

var pattern = /[a-zA-Z0-9*]+/;

var pattern = /[A-Z0-9*]+/i;

var pattern = /^[A-Z0-9*]+$/i;
var input = "Foo*Bar*baz";
console.log("Got: " + input.match(pattern);