Newbie question

[ezeebop]

What would be the search string for the following search?
I wand to search within all files with docx extension on H:\dynamics\documents to find those containing "Bernoulli" (case sensitive)
A secondary question would be, how could I have easily answered this question myself? It seems like the most basic and common type of search, but ten minutes poking around in the wiki page made me consider going back to linux grep.
This seems like useful and well-designed software, but I think most of these sorts of questions could be avoided by a list of examples, possibly in a "Getting Started" tab. Most of us have had to learn dozens of new apps over the past years or decades, and detest plowing through yet another overly complicated introductory manual just to complete a simple task.

[void]

I wand to search within all files with docx extension on H:\dynamics\documents to find those containing "Bernoulli" (case sensitive)

Please try the following search:

"H:\dynamics\documents\" *.docx case:content:"Bernoulli"

A secondary question would be, how could I have easily answered this question myself?

Please try the Advanced Search under the Search menu.



Searching Help

[ezeebop]

Thanks for the reply, but that did not work. But then, I bet you knew it wouldn't. Eventually I discovered that in order to make it work, I would need to enable Content indexing. But (wouldn't you know it), Content is not listed in my Tools-Options window (unlike in the screenshot in the forum page) so I cannot enable it. So now I am struggling to see what the point of Everything is. The Windows FIle Explorer Search Tool is perfectly adequate for 99% of filename searches.

[NotNull]

Everything 1.4 and Everything 1.5 handle content: searches different.
The screenshots you are referring to are from Everything 1.5 (the alpha version is available for testing).
As you are using Everything 1.4, the options you mention are not available.

What does "that did not work" exactly mean? It's a bit vague ..
Are there any files found when you use Advanced Search? What queries did you enter?
And when typing a search in the search bar, do you find any files when using the searches below?

Code: Select all

"H:\dynamics\documents\"
"H:\dynamics\documents\" *.docx
"H:\dynamics\documents\" *.docx content:"Bernoulli"
"H:\dynamics\documents\" *.docx utf8content:"Bernoulli"
"H:\dynamics\documents\" *.docx case:content:"Bernoulli"
"H:\dynamics\documents\" *.docx case:utf8content:"Bernoulli"

BTW: Is MS Office installed on this system?

So now I am struggling to see what the point of Everything is.

Don't give up yet!
That's also what I thought when first starting to use Everything. Now I feel rather 'handicapped' on systems without it.

[ezeebop]

Thank you. On your advice I (rather reluctantly) decided to give Everything another try.
The original example search I gave was for a .docx file, but what I am really interested in are strings in .py files, so that was what I was testing.
When I say "it didn't work" I meant that the following search string:
"H:\_mystuff\MODELS\OPENDRIFT\_Projects\Conflict Islands\Code" *.py content:"mask"
...produced no result. But I know there is a .py file in that folder with that content.
However, this worked correctly:
"H:\_mystuff\MODELS\OPENDRIFT\_Projects\Conflict Islands\Code" *.txt content:"uic"
Maybe Everything feels some disdain for python?
Yes MS Office is installed.
Thanks for explaining about the version. So my assumption that void had sadistically sent me on a wild goose chase was unsound. Had I actually tested the search for an existing .docx file, I'm sure it would have worked. Apologies to void. And I now understand that indexing is not necessary for my purposes.

All that remains is to see if Everything can be induced to look in files with extension .py. Any help with that? (They are simple ascii files.) I looked in Tools-options but I guess that would be too obvious. Or maybe I am blind.

[void]

Does the following search return any py files:
"H:\_mystuff\MODELS\OPENDRIFT\_Projects\Conflict Islands\Code" *.py

-If not, please make sure the Everything filter is active under the Search menu.



Everything will use the system iFilter to search file content.
If there is no system iFilter associated with .py files then Everything will fall back to a UTF-8 content search.

The system iFilter for .py files might be returning odd content.
To confirm, please try the following search:
"H:\_mystuff\MODELS\OPENDRIFT\_Projects\Conflict Islands\Code" *.py utf8content:"mask"

If you still don't see any results, the .py files might be encoded as UTF-16.
Please try the following search for UTF16 content:
"H:\_mystuff\MODELS\OPENDRIFT\_Projects\Conflict Islands\Code" *.py utf16content:"mask"

Does Everything find the content with utf8content: or utf16content:?

[NotNull]

I had some troubles with .py files too (other text file extensions worked fine).
Had to use utf8content: instead of content: to get any results. All .py files were utf-8 encoded.

But here most/all code-related preview handlers and some iFilters are terribly messed up after uninstalling MS PowerToys. Don't know what happens on a 'normal' system.


@ezeebop, If you are already familiar with grep: Everything supports regex searches for content too, like the following to find 4-digit numbers in .py files:

Code: Select all

c:\folder   ext:py   regex:utf8content:"\D\d{4}\D"

If all fails, there is also the free and open source dnGrep.
It can use Everything for finding all filenames in lightning-fast Evrything-speed and uses it's own routines to search through content in those files.
The big plus (to me) is the viewing of the results: syntax highlighting; search hits are highlighted and all in dark mode too.
But 95+ percent of the time, Everything + preview pane is more than enough for my needs.

[horst.epp]

I had some troubles with .py files too (other text file extensions worked fine).
Had to use utf8content: instead of content: to get any results. All .py files were utf-8 encoded.

But here most/all code-related preview handlers and some iFilters are terribly messed up after uninstalling MS PowerToys. Don't know what happens on a 'normal' system.

MS Power Toys has no negative effect on any IFilters on my system.
It allows you to enable or disable all of its options.

I use Everything content indexing which relies on IFilters.
The following content types work fine here:
*.doc;*.docx;*.txt;*.xls;*.xlsx;*.odt;*.txt;*.eml;*.csv;*.md;*.ini;*.pdf

[ezeebop]

Thanks everyone for highly useful and informative replies. Sorry for the delay in this reply, which was due to perfect weather (perfect for not working indoors).
This worked as advertised:
"H:\_mystuff\MODELS\OPENDRIFT\_Projects\Conflict Islands\Code" *.py utf8content:"mask"
(When utf8 is replaced by utf16, it does not work.)
So, problem solved! (Just have to get that search string tattooed onto my inner arm Actually I saw someone's suggestion for keeping track of search strings, and I will look into that.)
I look forward to experimenting with Everything. Just wish I had something like this to find misplaced items around the house. Like:
"House:\kitchen\cupboard" *.plastic utf8content:"tupperware lid"