Recursively Searching for "text" in files in windows 11

yacCarsten

If you don't need to it in a batch file, have a look at Agent Ransack from Mythicsoft.

// TODO: Insert something here

Top ten reasons why I'm lazy 1.

Jacquers

Agent Ransack.

BillWoodruff

Agent Ransack I have not tried this, but, check out: [^]

«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch

PIEBALDconsult

Roll your own. Make it do exactly what you want. You can't expect someone else to have already done it for you.

Pete OHanlon

Maybe I'm missing some nuance in your post, but have you tried finest?

Advanced TypeScript Programming Projects

trønderen

I use Notepad++ for searching in a specific file - so I use Notepad++ for searching in all files. It lets me select between case sensitive and insensitive search. It lets me search for whole words only. It lets me search for either plain strings, strings with control characters escaped by backslashes, or a regular expession. It lets me filter files by name and/or extension, with a list of alternatives (such as "*.txt;*.log;*.cs") It lets me select files in a single directory or also in subdirectories. It lets me replace the found string with another text in all matching files. It lets me navigate the directory tree graphically for selecting the directory (tree) to search. It handles files in various encodings, including UTF-8 and different line ending conventions. It lets me fetch two (or more) files with hits, and compare them (with plugin, but a standard one that should always be installed). The hit list is very well organized: It shows a single line for each hit; you can open that file on that line by clicking it. You can temporarily hide all hits in one (or all) files. You can delete files of no interest from the hit list, while continuing to inspect the remaining ones. It is quite fast. But most of all: Using the same tool, with the same dialog fields, for searching a directory tree as the one you use for searching in the one text file you are editing means that there is no new tool to learn, no new command syntax or specification format. It is familiar and friendly. This of course is if np++ already is your standard text file editor. If it is not, my question is "Why not?" :-)

englebart

Notepad++ also handles multi byte, BOM, BOMless, etc whereas cmd’s FIND /s and FINDSTR /s only work with single byte characters.

raddevus

If you have Linqpad -- LINQPad - The .NET Programmer's Playground[^] -- (and what self-respecting C# dev doesn't :rolleyes: ) then I got your back on this: Here's a great little findInFiles script I wrote a few years ago when i was frustrated because I couldn't search inside of source code (*.cs) to find specific text items I needed. Keep in mind I wrote this very quickly bec I was needing to search in files for specific text. It ignores case and finds all matches ( you can add a parameter to handle this). it will prompt you for a few items: 1. Directory you want to search (searches all subdirs) 2. text you want to search for. 3. file pattern you want to search against *.*, *.cs, *.txt, etc. that's it. It'll go through them all and give you some results. Yes, it's just bruteforce but it works and it's relatively fast and you'll see updated results as it finds the text.

void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine ("Enter the path you want to search.");
string searchPath = Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("Searching : {0}", searchPath));
DirectoryInfo DirInfo = new DirectoryInfo(searchPath);
Console.Write("Search Term: ");
string searchTerm = Console.ReadLine().ToUpper();
Console.WriteLine(searchTerm);
Console.WriteLine("Enter the file pattern you want search against.");
string filePattern = Console.ReadLine();
try
{
var files = DirInfo.EnumerateFiles(filePattern,SearchOption.AllDirectories);
foreach (var f in files)
{
// Console.WriteLine($"Searching {Path.GetFileName(f.Name)}"); // uncomment to see all file names searched
string [] allLines = File.ReadAllLines(f.FullName);
int lineCount = 1;
bool foundInFile = false;
foreach (string line in allLines)
{
if (line.ToUpper().Contains(searchTerm))
{
if (!foundInFile)
{
// insures it only prints filename once
Console.WriteLine("searching {0}", f.FullName.ToUpper());
foundInFile=true;
}
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("FOUND : {0} {1}",lineCount, line));
}
lineCount++;
}
if (foundInFile)
{
Console.WriteLine("#############################");
Console.WriteLine();
}
}
}
finally
{

}

jmaida

Google used have a search engine one could use search you own system (can't recall it's exact name google_something). They don't have it anymore. It was great.