Vista search including double quote

  • Thread starter Thread starter Vern Rabe
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Vern Rabe

Vista ultimate. I want to search multiple dtsx files for the existence of a
string that includes a double quote. Specifically:

ProtectionLevel">1<

When I search for that string, it appears to treat the double quote as a
space, and returns files that contain both "ProtectionLevel" and ">1<", but
not necessarily juxtaposed. Maybe there's an escape character I can prefix
the double quote with?

Thanks
Vern Rabe
 
Vista ultimate. I want to search multiple dtsx files for the existence of a
string that includes a double quote. Specifically:

ProtectionLevel">1<

When I search for that string, it appears to treat the double quote as a
space, and returns files that contain both "ProtectionLevel" and ">1<", but
not necessarily juxtaposed. Maybe there's an escape character I can prefix
the double quote with?

Thanks
Vern Rabe
Click to expand...

Hello Verne,

If there is, I have never seen a reference to it in the MS documentation
for search. Search is now word-based and it sees punctuation as a break
between words. The closest thing that I can suggest is to use a wild card
character and to enclose the whole string in quotes, like this:

"ProtectionLevel?>1<"

I just tried a similar search on some HTML files, and this query returned
only files with content containing the full string when a quote character
occupied the wild card position:

"ball?><A"

Of course, it will also return the string with other characters in the
wild card position. I don't have a solution for that, maybe someone else
here does.

Doug M. in NJ
 
Thanks. That sounds like it may be close enough, but when I try it, I get
even more confusing results. I have a file with the string -
ProtectionLevel">2< - in it. When I search for the string - Protection - it
finds it. When I search for the string - "Protection - (including the leading
double quote) it finds it. When I search for the string - "Protection" - it
doesn't find it. There is only one occurance of the word Protection in the
document.

More that I don't understand:

When I search for - "P - several documents are identified
When I search for "Pr" - two documents are identified
When I search for "P" - one document is identified

That doesn't make sense

Vern Rabe
 
Thanks. That sounds like it may be close enough, but when I try it, I get
even more confusing results. I have a file with the string -
ProtectionLevel">2< - in it. When I search for the string - Protection - it
finds it. When I search for the string - "Protection - (including the leading
double quote) it finds it. When I search for the string - "Protection" - it
doesn't find it. There is only one occurance of the word Protection in the
document.
Click to expand...

Vern,
There is no need or reason to enclose one word within quotes in a content
search. Your first query above was the correct one because in content
searches, the upper case L following Protection is considered to begin a
separate word. In other words, look for the simplest query syntax that
works. The only reason that I put quotes around my previous example was
that your string - ProtectionLevel">1< - is interpreted by search as a
phrase, not as a single word.
More that I don't understand:

When I search for - "P - several documents are identified
When I search for "Pr" - two documents are identified
When I search for "P" - one document is identified

That doesn't make sense
Click to expand...

All three of those queries are incorrect, hence the inconsistent results.
As I said, search is now word-based (like Google) and not character-based.
Avoid punctuation characters and never add quotes to a content search
except to enclose a phrase. If you want to search content for a word that
begins with Pr, either type the whole word or type Pr* to find all words
that begin with those two letters.

Doug M. in NJ
 
You may want to search "folder options" from control panel search pane.
Under folder options select "change search options for files and folder"
this opens a dialog box, under the heading "How to Search" check the box
next to "Use Natural Language Search"
Windows Search indexes text content but not punctuation.

Passed that, Vista search is powerful and its worth the effort to learn its
power. Plus Vista includes setting for power users in advanced search.
Start thinking about a valid Property the file can have and the Value you
are searching for.
e.g. property:value Revision number:5 [<property name>:<value>]
store:file .
You can do the same on Google e.g. filetype:text .


Search "search" from Vista help files, lots of info there.
Be sure to turn on the setting from help "Help setting" To include window
online help and support when searching from help so you get the latest
context available.

Find out more about power searching at the two links below, just for
starters.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb266520(VS.85).aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb266512.aspx
Good Luck
H Brown
 
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