import fnmatch

paths = ['a/x.txt', 'b/y.txt']

for path in paths:
  if fnmatch.fnmatch(path, '*.txt'):
    print 'do things'

for path in paths:
    if fnmatch.fnmatch(path, '[!b]*'):
        print path

a/x.txt

header_hcho = fnmatch.filter(col_names, '[!NO2_UV.]*');

header_hcho = fnmatch.filter(col_names, '[!N]*');

header_hcho = []
idx=0
for idx in range(0, len(col_names)):
    if col_names[idx].find("NO2_UV") == -1:
        header_hcho.append(col_names[idx])
    idx=idx+1