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Using findInFiles i am trying to find all instances of a specific string regardless of some characters. Here is an example line

IF INVENTORY.REC(III+14)<1,PURCHASE.ORDERS.WHSE.NO>=0 THEN INVENTORY.REC(III+14)<1,PURCHASE.ORDERS.WHSE.NO>=""

I have found all lines with INVENTORY.REC( using the string 'INVENTORY(" but i would like to find all lines with assignements so something like

INVENTORY.REC(?)<?>=

where i want to ignore any characters where the ? is

I would also like to know if there is any way to ignore all spaces. so lines like

IF INVENTORY.REC(III+14)<1,PURCHASE.ORDERS.WHSE.NO>=0

might be

IF INVENTORY.REC(III+14)<1,PURCHASE.ORDERS.WHSE.NO> = 0

You need to use regular expressions, in which certain characters have special meanings:
“.� (dot) matches any single character except newline.
“.*� matches any number of characters except newline.
“ *� (there's a space in front of the “*�) matches any number of spaces.

When you want one of the special characters to represent itself you must quote it with a backslash. In particular, when using Posix syntax (see below), “.�, “(� and “)� must be quoted when they represent themselves.

So this might be what you need:

Find what: INVENTORY\.REC\(.*\)<.*> *= *

[X] Regular expression

This assumes you are using Posix regular expression syntax:

Configure | Preferences | Editor

[X] Use POSIX regular expression syntax

You also need to be aware that TextPad will find the longest match possible on each line. This means that using the example you gave ben_josephs search expression will match from the first INVENTORY to the second =.

He's using Find In Files to find the lines the strings occur in. For this purpose it makes no difference.

ben_josephs wrote:You need to use regular expressions, in which certain characters have special meanings:
“.� (dot) matches any single character except newline.
“.*� matches any number of characters except newline.
“ *� (there's a space in front of the “*�) matches any number of spaces.

When you want one of the special characters to represent itself you must quote it with a backslash. In particular, when using Posix syntax (see below), “.�, “(� and “)� must be quoted when they represent themselves.

So this might be what you need:

Find what: INVENTORY\.REC\(.*\)<.*> *= *

[X] Regular expression

This assumes you are using Posix regular expression syntax:

Configure | Preferences | Editor

[X] Use POSIX regular expression syntax

I find the following line appears in the results list. No where is there an INVENTORY.REC()<>=


WL.UPDATE.LOCATION.PIK(193): IF INVENTORY.SIZE.TYPE=99 OR (INVENTORY.REC(III+4)<1,WHSE.NO>+0)#0 OR INVENTORY.LOCS.REC(III)<1,1>#"" OR INVENTORY.LOCS.REC(III)<1,2>#"" OR INVENTORY.LOCS.REC(III)<1,3>#"" OR INVENTORY.LOCS.REC(III)<1,4>#"" THEN INVENTORY.STOCKED<1,WHSE.NO>=1;III=5

mostly works and is a great first step. thanks

what is the difference with postix ? (if it is quick

SteveH wrote:You also need to be aware that TextPad will find the longest match possible on each line. This means that using the example you gave ben_josephs search expression will match from the first INVENTORY to the second =.

so what you are saying is that if i was in a specific record and did that selection it would select all rows from INVENTORY to the second =

Is this right?

Dtsig wrote:I find the following line appears in the results list. No where is there an INVENTORY.REC()<>=

Do you mean that there is to be no > between the < and the > ? You didn't make that clear. This imposes that restriction:
INVENTORY\.REC\(.*\)<[^>]*> *= *

What other restrictions do you want to impose?

Dtsig wrote:what is the difference with postix ?

Search in TextPad's help for Posix.

Dtsig wrote:

SteveH wrote:You also need to be aware that TextPad will find the longest match possible on each line. This means that using the example you gave ben_josephs search expression will match from the first INVENTORY to the second =.

so what you are saying is that if i was in a specific record and did that selection it would select all rows from INVENTORY to the second =

Is this right?

No. It will only match text on a single line. The search expression must include explicit newlines (\n) for TextPad to match text on more than one line. But, once it's found a position within a line at which there is a match, it will match the longest possible string that starts at that position. This is related to the fact that my original suggestion matched too much. If that's what Steve meant, I apologise for missing his point.

If that's what Steve meant, I apologise for missing his point.

That was what I meant but, as you said, for the purposes of using Find in Files as per Dtsig's original query it makes no difference.