Case sesitivity for searching

insitus · Post by **insitus** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 9:47 pm

For searching, I normally do not chek in front of "Match Case". I prefer to use a string word with low case to find all related words in files. Then, I get the following error: "cannot find literal string 'xxx". If the target word were in uppder case, it finds if I use the upper case word as the search string. How can I fix this problem? I find it very incovenient.

I currently use v. 5.10 The problem I see was v. 5.03 and also v. 5.10 too. OS is WinXP Pro SP2. James

gan · Post by **gan** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 11:03 pm

I tried to reproduce this problem without success. Could you give an exact example where you explain what is checked and what is not in the search dialogbox. Also tell us the search string you use and what you expect to find that is not successful. I presume you have the "direction" set correctly?
If i uncheck "Match case" i don't have any problems finding the words regardless of using uppercase/lowercase for the search string or words that i want to find. I'm using version 5.10 now and also used 5.03 for a long time without the problem you describe.

insitus · Post by **insitus** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 1:34 am

OK. After reading Gan's post, I repeated the Search. Now, I found that my question was not exactly correct. This is what I found: If I do perform for the first time, it did not find the target word and prompted "cannot find lieteral string: "xxxwordxxx', regardless whether the words are in upper or lower case. If I REPEAT the same search again, it finds the target words (this is what I found now).

I think the same thing happens to my second computer in my office which the same TexPad was installed.

I wonder how I can fix this problem. James

gan · Post by **gan** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 2:02 am

Still i'm unable to reproduce this issue and never seen it before either using any version of textpad. Again i would like to ask you to give an exact example. What do you use as a search string and what does your textfile contain that you would expect to find using that specific search string? Exactly what is checked and what is not checked in the search dialogbox when you perform the search? Where is your cursor located when performing the search and is the direction set to up or down?

If i understand you correctly you are saying that when you perform a search it doesn't find anything on the first try, but doing the exact same search once more and it's working just fine? Whatever i try i cannot reproduce this behavior using textpad.

insitus · Post by **insitus** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 2:53 pm

This is not a complicated question, but a very s;mple one.
I got to do search twice to find the target words.
james

gan · Post by **gan** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 3:52 pm

insitus wrote:This is not a complicated question, but a very s;mple one.
I got to do search twice to find the target words.
james

Since this is impossible to reproduce it's impossible to tell you why it happen. If you gave some more info maybe i or someone else could reproduce the same problem and help you out. Not sure if this is a bug, something you do wrong or any other logical explaination, but since i cannot reproduce the same behavior no matter what i do i have no idea. If this was a problem that occur for all search operations and that affect all users i'm sure i could easily see the same problem and sure that a lot of other people reported the problem already. The question is simple, but the answer isn't.....especially with so little details. It's like asking "my computer doesn't boot, why?" without any further details. That a question it's impossible to answer.

Since you don't want to give away any more details then hopefully someone else can help you out. With the lack of info given by you so far i cannot tell why it happen so i'm unable to help.

Bob Hansen · Post by **Bob Hansen** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 4:16 pm

This sounds like the cursor is not in the correct start position when you do the first search. If working in a document, press CTL-HOME first to go to the top of the document if you are searching Down. Or press CTL-END to go to the end of the document if you are searching Up. Then, do the Find process.

How do you know it does not find the first instance? Once you find the second one (that matches), change the search direction from down to up and see if it now finds both the second and first instance. Does it still not find that first instance?

Since this cannot be duplicated, it can't be diagnosed. If possible, provide a list of EVERY step you are taking to make this problem. List EVERY key stroke, EVERY mouse movement, EVERY mouse click (left/right/middle/couble), etc.

textpad-fan · Post by **textpad-fan** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 5:49 pm

Insitus,
I also couldn't duplicate the error you mention. Follow the instructions given by Bob Hansen and include a portion of your text or post a link to your file. My guess is the problem might be in the source.

insitus · Post by **insitus** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:10 am

I am home now. In my office, I found that I got to perform repeated search to find the target word. It was not convenient.

As Bob Hansen mentioned, the position of the cursor could be potentially the casue of the problem. I will pay attention to the cursor's position. I will follow up what I get when I follow more closlyBob's suggestion. Thanks. James

insitus · Post by **insitus** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:39 pm

Bob Hansen,
You are absolutely correct. When I carefully position the cursor at the top of the text file, search did the correct job. My problem was that the cursor was somewhere in the text, not at the top of the file.
Thanks again. james

ben_josephs · Post by **ben_josephs** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 7:20 pm

Have you tried selecting Wrap searches?

gan · Post by **gan** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 8:13 pm

insitus wrote:Bob Hansen,
You are absolutely correct. When I carefully position the cursor at the top of the text file, search did the correct job. My problem was that the cursor was somewhere in the text, not at the top of the file.
Thanks again. james

Maybe you understand now why i asked some questions to what you felt was a simple question. Like this one:
"Where is your cursor located when performing the search and is the direction set to up or down?".