How to pass an asterisk(*) to a command inside a Bash script? - bash

Question

I have done quite a bit of looking on Google, stackexchange, stackoverflow, etc. So far none of the examples satisfies a quite simple use case for using an asterisk character (not as a wildcard) within a bash script.
The following command examples work exactly as needed in the (interactive) terminal window. Both commands give the same results.
find /home/will/ref/ -path "*Java Develop*.pdf"
#
target="Java Develop"
find /home/will/ref/ -path "*$target*.pdf"
The question, and objective, is how to successfully put that command into a script with the find target
"Java Develop"
Passed as an argument? For a script named, get-ref as follows.
get-ref "Java Develop"`
None of the following (not the exhaustive) list of attempts:
find /home/will/ref/ -path \"\*$target\*.pdf\"
find /home/will/ref/ -path \"*$target*.pdf\"
find /home/will/ref/ -path "*$target*.pdf"
Plus several variations around those examples including putting the -path argument string in a variable -- All so far manage to split the target using the space or accept the argument and return nothing. When used on the command-line, about 3 x files are returned.
To be clear though, I'm not concerned with the space inside $target because that side seems to work OK. Ultimately the $target will be a script parameter anyway.
-- update 2015-12-22 --
It appears that the Bash version is important. This version is:
$ bash -version
GNU bash, version 4.3.11(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
A friend ran more or less the same options as above and they work. When I ran his script on my PC, same result, no output.
To answer the questions:
Everything fails the either by not 'finding' something; or by giving an error about the string "Devel" because of mis-balance quotes we presume.
I used set -x and the results have found an answer that work on this bash (see posted answer).
I'll just post my version as an answer; perhaps someone will have a better method or at least an explanation that lets Bash off the hook.
The concern is that the asterisks(*) are somehow Not being seen or processed as expected when the same command is used inside a Bash script.

Answer 1

With a little help, we have found a working version for this script. It is quite short so I'll post it here and give an example.
First the script, get-ref:
#!/bin/bash
#
# file: get-ref
# usage: get-ref <pattern>
#
# <pattern> ...... target pattern to find
# _____________________________________
#
target=$1
searchPath="$HOME/ref/"
#
# _____________________________________
#
#
find $searchPath -path "*$target*.pdf"
#
echo " -------------------------------"
echo
exit
(Debugging code omitted). This script looks like pattern #3 from the question. Which may mean that I had the answer once but it didn't work for some other reason (I hate it when that happens).
This method worked with my friend's Bhodi Linux distro although <shrug> his set -x didn't show the single-quoting(') below. However ...
The way -path is handled was revealed when we used, set -x which showed the find command looks like this to Bash:
+ find /home/william/_ref/ -path '"*Java Dev*.pdf"'
It seems the script (and not, the command terminal) injects single-quotes(') around the -path argument. This was the missing factor.
praise the set -x built-in
Output example:
$ get-ref "Java Dev"
+ find /home/william/_ref/ -path '*Java Dev*.pdf'
/home/will/ref/technique/games/The Well-Grounded Java Developer.pdf
/home/will/ref/technique/bi/JasperReports 3.5 for Java Developers.pdf
/home/will/ref/lang/ada/Ada for the Cpp or Java Developer.pdf
Finale ...
I'm happy that I can (now) find the document or eBook I want when I need to. Thank you for the comments they were definitely on-track.