Combining multiple substrings of paths with Boolean operators?

[David.P]

Hello forum,

I would like to use some sort of "lazy" path specification, in the sense that I'd combine two strings that I know occur somewhere in the same path, for example as follows:

Some-String-Inside-Some-Path\

AND

Some-Other-String-Inside-The-Same-Path\

For example, if I want to find all images that are at least in a certain depth of this path:

D:\OneDrive\Documents\Family\User Manuals, Instruction Manuals\Samsung Optical Smart Hub DVD Player SE-208DB\Scripts

... I'd like to use a search term for example like this:

User Manuals\ AND \Samsung pic:

Or is something like this already possible?

[void]

Searching can get awkward when the path contains a space.

I like to use \start-of-folder-name searches.
For example:

\OneDrive \Documents \Family \User \Samsung \Scripts pic:

Searching for the following might be enough:
\User \Samsung \Scripts pic:


With your example, you would need to escape the space:
"User Manuals\" \Samsung pic:

The following would also work:
Manuals\ \Samsung pic:


Another option is to enable Match Path from the search menu and search for:

user manuals samsung pic:


The following option might be of interest:
/path_search_type=3

With path search type 3, you can search for:
\User \Manuals \Samsung pic:
(You gain some speed typing but lose some accuracy as the \ no longer matches)


path_search_type

[David.P]

Awesome, thank you!

I had the suspicion that this use case was of course already long considered

[David.P]

One more question please regarding path search.

Another option is to enable Match Path from the search menu
[...]
The following option might be of interest:
/path_search_type=3
With path search type 3, you can search for:
\User \Manuals \Samsung pic:

I have now enabled both of the above options.

When searching for \haus, I seem to get all folders where the folder name, or any parent folder in the path, starts with haus, so far so good.

However, I also get some files in the search results that contain haus only inside the file name, but nowhere else in the path, for example a file like this:

C:\Users\David\OneDrive\Documents\Family\David\Macintosh\Data without backup from Macintosh\.finf\Letter to Peter FinkenHAUSer.doc

Is this intended behavior?

[void]

Yes, \haus matching haus in the name part is intended.

To limit your search to just the path part, please try the pathpart: search function.

For example:

pathpart:haus

[David.P]

Ok thanks -- so with my current option settings, there is no difference when searching for \haus or for haus.

I wonder why this is so, and why \haus would not limit the search to a path element that starts with haus?

Particularly, why would it only match paths where a path element starts with haus, but also match filenames that contain haus?

[void]

/path_search_type=3 will ignore the \ and match haus anywhere in the filename.

Please try reverting back to /path_search_type=0 and see if the issue persists:

• Copy and paste the following into the Everything search box:
  /path_search_type=0
• Press ENTER in the Everything search box.
• If successful, path_search_type=0 is shown in the status bar for a few seconds.

\haus will still match files that start with haus.

[David.P]

Thank you, I am getting there slowly.

\haus will still match files that start with haus.

Why is that so? Isn't the backslash a "search only for paths" operator?

[NotNull]

Why is that so? Isn't the backslash a "search only for paths" operator?

This is an age old discussion about what a filename and what a path is. No definitive answer thus far ..
This is how Everything handles it:

Example file: c:\some folder\my filename.txt

Typically, Everything searches only in the last (back)slash-separated component for matches.
In this case: "my filename.txt"

When Match Path is enabled and/or the search contains a (back)slash [1], Everything searches in the full filename (including the path).
In this case: "c:\some folder\my filename.txt"




[1] Not literally true, but I hope you get the point.

[void]

Why is that so? Isn't the backslash a "search only for paths" operator?

When using a \ in your search, Everything will search the full path (including the filename part).