How to find and replace a string including wildcards in Calc?

I have a Calc spreadsheet which I copied and pasted from Wikipedia. It has a bunch of citation links in the form of “[num]”.

Something like “some data I want to keep [1] [12]”.

How do I use Find and Replace (CTRL+H) to replace everything that starts with a “[” and ends in a “]” with a “wildcard” or any integer between them?

I’ve tried the: Other options > Wildcards check box, using “.” as any character wildcard, but that doesn’t work.

Any assistance would be very much appreciated.

Hello,

it’s not about “Wildcards” but “Regular Expression”. For your example

Find: \[[:digit:]*\]
Replace: Put your replace text here (no input here will remove the matches)
Other Options: Tick Regular Expressions

On my screen it looks like your screenshot is covering the last bit of your text. So if you could fix that please; I want to understand and I don’t. Thanks.

I assume the partly hidden text row is just part of a screen in screenshot not intended to be seen (not accurately enough cropped). You are not supposed to see the text that is partly hidden by the “search & replace” dialog box. There is nothing to be seen there.

@PSi1 - you are right. Absolutely not important here and mrjjacobs would have noticed, if just trying what the answer states.