TStringList.IndexOf: wildcard within indexof?

If you want to match some part of the string, without any fancy wildcards, as you indicate in a comment to another answer, then you can use a simple function like this:

function FindMatchStr(Strings: TStrings; const SubStr: string): Integer;
begin    
  for Result := 0 to Strings.Count-1 do
    if ContainsStr(Strings[Result], SubStr) then
      exit;
  Result := -1;
end;

If you want a case-insensitive match then you can use this:

function FindMatchText(Strings: TStrings; const SubStr: string): Integer;
begin    
  for Result := 0 to Strings.Count-1 do
    if ContainsText(Strings[Result], SubStr) then
      exit;
  Result := -1;
end;

ContainsStr and ContainsText are defined in the StrUtils RTL unit and follow the standard convention of Str to indicate case sensitive comparison, and Text to indicate case insensitive.

There's no built-in way to search TStringList for wildcards. You need to use a third-party library, such as TPerlRegEx for regular expressions.