MS-DOS v6.22 Help: FIND

------------------------- MS-DOS v6.22 Help: FIND --------------------------
<Notes> <Examples>                                               <Index>
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                                    FIND

Searches for a specific string of text in a file or files.

After searching the specified files, FIND displays any lines of text that
contain the specified string.

Syntax

    FIND [/V] [/C] [/N] [/I] "string" [[drive:][path]filename[...]]

Parameters

"string"
    Specifies the group of characters you want to search for. You must
    enclose the text for string in quotation marks.

[drive:][path]filename
    Specifies the location and name of the file in which to search for the
    specified string.

Switches

/V
    Displays all lines not containing the specified string.

/C
    Displays only a count of the lines that contain the specified string.

/N
    Precedes each line with the file's line number.

/I
    Specifies that the search is not to be case-sensitive.

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<Syntax> <Examples>
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                                FIND--Notes

Specifying a string

Unless you specify the /I switch, FIND searches for exactly what you specify
for string. For example, to the FIND command the characters "a" and "A" are
different. If you were to use the /I switch, however, FIND would ignore case
and search for "a" and "A" as if they were the same character.

If the string you want to search for contains quotation marks, you must use
two quotation marks for each quotation mark contained within the string.

Using FIND as a filter

If you omit a filename, FIND acts as a filter, taking input from the MS-DOS
standard source (usually the keyboard, a pipe, or a redirected file) and
displaying any lines that contain the string.

Using wildcards with FIND

You cannot use wildcards (* and ?) in filenames or extensions that you
specify with the FIND command. To search for a string in a set of files you
specify with wildcards, you can use the FIND command in a FOR command.

Using the /V or /N switch with the /C switch

If you specify the /C and /V switches in the same command, FIND displays a
count of the lines that do not contain the specified string. If you specify
the /C and /N switches in the same command, FIND ignores the /N switch.

Using FIND in files with carriage returns

The FIND command does not recognize carriage returns. When you use FIND to
search for text in a file that includes carriage returns, you must limit the
search string to text that can be found between carriage returns--that is, a
string that is not likely to be interrupted by a carriage return. For
example, FIND does not report a match for the string "tax file" wherever a
carriage return occurs between the word "tax" and the word "file".

FIND exit codes

The following list shows each exit code and a brief description of its
meaning:

0
    The search was completed successfully and at least one match was found.

1
    The search was completed successfully, but no matches were found.

2
    The search was not completed successfully. In this case, an error
    occurred during the search, and FIND cannot report whether any matches
    were found.

You can use the ERRORLEVEL parameter on the <If> command line in a batch
program to process exit codes returned by FIND.

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<Syntax> <Notes>
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                               FIND--Examples

To display all lines from the file PENCIL.AD that contain the string "Pencil
Sharpener", type the following command:

    find "Pencil Sharpener" pencil.ad

To find a string that contains text within quotation marks, you must enclose
the entire string in quotation marks and, in addition, use two quotation
marks for each quotation mark contained within the string, as shown in the
following example:

    find "The scientists labeled their paper ""for discussion only."" It is
    not a final report." report.doc

If you want to search for a set of files, you can use the FIND command with
the FOR command. The following command uses this method to search the
current directory for files that have the extension .BAT; in each file
found, the command searches for the string "PROMPT":

    for %f in (*.bat) do find "PROMPT" %f

Suppose you want FIND to search your hard disk to find and display the
filenames on drive C that contain the string "CPU". To do this, you can use
the pipe (|) to direct the results of a DIR command to FIND, as shown in the
following example:

    dir c:\ /s /b | find "CPU"

Before using a pipe for redirection, you should set the TEMP environment
variable in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

Since FIND searches are case-sensitive and since DIR produces uppercase
output, you must either type the string "CPU" in uppercase letters or use
the /I switch with FIND.

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