I need to consolidate data from many files in a directory with
filenames in the form of [variable length text name][4-digit
number].xls

For example:
alpha0104.xls
alpha0204.xls
beta0104.xls
gamma0204.xls
omicron0704.xls
etc...

There are also other files in the directory not of this format that I
will ignore.

In some cases, I need all the files of the same name, regardless of
the number. I can build a filename string like "alpha????.xls", which
works fine. Or, if I need all the files of the same number, I can use
"*0104.xls" which also works. However, if I want all the files in this
format that begin with the letter a, "a*????.xls" will not work
because it picks up other files that I don't want. I tried
"a*####.xls", which theoretically would work perfectly for my
application, but the # is apparently not a valid wildcard for
numeric-only characters in a filename. Is there some wildcard for
numeric characters in filenames, or can someone suggest a different
approach?

Thanks,
Jeff