Findstr and multi-string AND searches

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michel Gallant
  • Start date Start date
M

Michel Gallant

Can findstr.exe be used for a multi-string AND search?
Is that possible given the limited RegExp capability of Findstr?

I want to search multiple files, subdirectory recursive, and
only find files containing BOTH (or more than 2) strings.

The following command finds 2 search words (in the order
given), but only if they are on the same line:
findstr /s /i /m "Word1.*Word2" *.*

Thanks,
- Michel Gallant
Visual Security MVP
 
Michel Gallant said:
Can findstr.exe be used for a multi-string AND search?
Is that possible given the limited RegExp capability of Findstr?

I want to search multiple files, subdirectory recursive, and
only find files containing BOTH (or more than 2) strings.

The following command finds 2 search words (in the order
given), but only if they are on the same line:
findstr /s /i /m "Word1.*Word2" *.*

Thanks,
- Michel Gallant
Visual Security MVP
Click to expand...

This isn't the most efficient solution since it will read each file twice,
but you could use the "&&" conditional processing symbol to execute a second
findstr only if the first one succeeds. Something like this:

@Echo Off
SetLocal
Set SOURCE=C:\Temp
For /R %SOURCE% %%A In (*.*) Do (
findstr /i "Word1" %%A>NUL && findstr /i /m "Word2" %%A
)
 
Thanks Marty. That seems to do the trick (refreshing my bat knowledge)

Is there a way to filter out (to Nul) lines in the resursion that fail like:
FINDSTR: Cannot open C:\Progra .....

Thanks,
- Mitch
 
Michel Gallant said:
Thanks Marty. That seems to do the trick (refreshing my bat knowledge)

Is there a way to filter out (to Nul) lines in the resursion that fail like:
FINDSTR: Cannot open C:\Progra .....
Click to expand...
Have you tried to redirect the error output with 2>NUL?

More on this you will find with Start/Help/Search for redirection.

hth
Matthias
 
Thanks.
Is there a recommended recent Batch file programming book
which includes extra features available for W2k+ ??
I have somewhere "MS-DOS Batch Files" K., Jamsa 1993

- Mitch
 
Michel Gallant said:
Thanks.
Is there a recommended recent Batch file programming book
which includes extra features available for W2k+ ??
I have somewhere "MS-DOS Batch Files" K., Jamsa 1993

- Mitch
Click to expand...
Btw. you can start with help on the commandline and then
help command. Or search the windows help for the topics you are
interested in. The websites are mostly a compilation of these sources.

hth
Matthias

*** I copied the following out of Message in a.m.b.nt.***
Tim Hill, _Windows NT Shell Scripting_

<http://www.seanet.com/~shardy/ntscript.html>
Win NT CMD programming

<http://www.ss64.com/nt>
Simon Sheppard's WinNT Command Reference
 
Is there a recommended recent Batch file programming book
which includes extra features available for W2k+ ??
I have somewhere "MS-DOS Batch Files" K., Jamsa 1993

- Mitch
Click to expand...

The FindStr Page will show you the difference between FindStr for
NT/2K/XP/K3
(http://TheSystemGuard.com/TheGuardBook/CCS-Ext/FindStr.htm)

For comparisons of all internal Cmd.exe commands, see
(http://TheSystemGuard.com/TheGuardBook/CCS-Int)

*******

-tsg
____________________________________________________________
TheSystemGuard.com | BoomingOrFuming.com | MountCommands.com
Free and "Almost Free" Knowledge for Windows System Admins!
 
OK, here is what I have for simple case there bat
reads in 2 args as search strings.

@Echo Off
SetLocal
Set SOURCE=C:\Progra~1\.......
For /R %SOURCE% %%A In (*.*) Do (findstr %1 %%A>NUL 2>Nul && findstr /m %2 %%A)

How do I modify this if the Set SOURCE= contains a string with explicit spaces (e.g. Program Files
....)
instead of 8.3 path names?

Thanks,
- Mitch
 
Michel Gallant said:
OK, here is what I have for simple case there bat
reads in 2 args as search strings.

@Echo Off
SetLocal
Set SOURCE=C:\Progra~1\.......
Click to expand...

Set Source="C:\Program Files\...."
Put _either_ Set or the "%SOURCE%" in Parenthes's
For /R %SOURCE% %%A In (*.*) Do (findstr %1 %%A>NUL 2>Nul && findstr >/m %2 %%A)
How do I modify this if the Set SOURCE= contains a string with
explicit spaces (e.g. Program Files ...)
instead of 8.3 path names?
Click to expand...
hth
Matthias
 
That doesn't work.
I tried both approaches individually, or combined and
always get an error (after removing 2>Nul)
FINDSTR: Cannot open C:\Program

- Mitch
 
Michel Gallant said:
OK, here is what I have for simple case there bat
reads in 2 args as search strings.

@Echo Off
SetLocal
Set SOURCE=C:\Progra~1\.......
For /R %SOURCE% %%A In (*.*) Do (findstr %1 %%A>NUL 2>Nul && findstr /m %2 %%A)

How do I modify this if the Set SOURCE= contains a string with explicit spaces
(e.g. Program Files
Click to expand...

@echo off & setlocal ENABLEEXTENSIONS
set dir="c:\program files"
for /r %dir% %%a in (*.*) do (
find %1 "%%a" >nul && find %2 "%%a" >nul && echo %%a
)

Note that the FIND search string must be quoted. Either hardcode the
quotes (if your search strings never contain spaces) of use quotes on
the commandline.
 
Ritchie said:
@echo off & setlocal ENABLEEXTENSIONS
set dir="c:\program files"
for /r %dir% %%a in (*.*) do (
find %1 "%%a" >nul && find %2 "%%a" >nul && echo %%a
)

Note that the FIND search string must be quoted. Either hardcode the
quotes (if your search strings never contain spaces) of use quotes on
the commandline.
Click to expand...
Thanks Ritchie. That works properly now.
Cheers,
- Mitch
 
Back
Top