Assume a list of objects with properties P1, P2, ... , Pk which is sorted using those properties.
Each property can be either a known value or a wildcard (*).
You have a set of properties S.
Is there a better method to determine if an object with properties that match S exists in the list other than linear search?
I know that without wildcards, it's a simple binary search with multiple keys, but wildcards tend make binary search difficult to implement as far as I can see.
Example:
You have the list
P1 P2 P3 Obj
1 1.0 3 A
10 5.2 2 B
3 0.2 68 C
87 4.1 2 D
5 * 2 E
* * * F
the property set (5 3.0 3) would match F
the property set (5 3.0 2) would match E
the property set (3 0.2 68) would match C