Community
    • Login

    Filtering my Find in Files search: help?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Help wanted · · · – – – · · ·
    5 Posts 2 Posters 2.3k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • Greg Smith 0G
      Greg Smith 0
      last edited by Greg Smith 0

      I need to exclude a set of files from a “Find in Files” search based on filenames containing the string “_bkup”.

      The files I am working with look like this:

      filename_bkupYYYYMMDD.html
      filename.html
      

      I need to exclude the first file and include the second file. I cannot filter based on file extensions, which is the approach shown in the Notepad++ documentation.

      The following tests failed to exclude the intended files:

      *.* ; !*_bkup*.html
      
      *.* ; !*_bkup????????.html
      

      Both of the file masks above return only the files I wish to exclude if I use them in a Windows Explorer search without negation.

      If anyone with more experience using this feature could provide some suggestions to put me on the right track it would be much appreciated. Is the search I want possible with this approach or do I need to use regex?

      PeterJonesP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • PeterJonesP
        PeterJones @Greg Smith 0
        last edited by

        @Greg-Smith-0 ,

        I created those two files, with the contents equal to their filename, so I know both have an a in them.

        I searched for a with the filter *.* !*_bkup*.html (no semicolon needed, though it didn’t hurt things)
        8caf8db7-0106-4989-b77e-fb9632a6fdae-image.png . This only found

        Search "a" (1 hit in 1 file of 1 searched)
          C:\Users\peter.jones\Downloads\TempData\nppCommunity\20617\filename.html (1 hit)
        	Line 1: filename.html
        

        If I change the filter to *.*, it finds:

        Search "a" (2 hits in 2 files of 2 searched)
          C:\Users\peter.jones\Downloads\TempData\nppCommunity\20617\filename.html (1 hit)
        	Line 1: filename.html
          C:\Users\peter.jones\Downloads\TempData\nppCommunity\20617\filename_bkupYYYYMMDD.html (1 hit)
        	Line 1: filename_bkupYYYYMMDD.html
        

        So, it works for me, as expected.

        or do I need to use regex

        No, the filters box does not use regex

        BTW: my ? menu, Debug Info:
        Notepad++ v7.9.2 (64-bit)
        Build time : Dec 31 2020 - 04:01:34
        Path : C:\usr\local\apps\notepad++\notepad++.exe
        Admin mode : OFF
        Local Conf mode : ON
        OS Name : Windows 10 Enterprise (64-bit)
        OS Version : 1903
        OS Build : 18362.1256
        Current ANSI codepage : 1252
        Plugins : ComparePlugin.dll ExtSettings.dll HexEditor.dll LuaScript.dll MarkdownViewerPlusPlus.dll mimeTools.dll NppConsole.dll NppConverter.dll NppEditorConfig.dll NppExec.dll NppExport.dll NppFTP.dll NppUISpy.dll PreviewHTML.dll PythonScript.dll QuickText.dll RestApiToText.dll TagLEET.dll XMLTools.dll

        Greg Smith 0G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • Greg Smith 0G
          Greg Smith 0 @PeterJones
          last edited by Greg Smith 0

          @PeterJones Thank you for this.

          I am using an older version:

          Notepad++ v7.8.1 (64-bit)
          Build time : Oct 27 2019 - 22:57:19

          I’ll update any try again.

          PeterJonesP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • PeterJonesP
            PeterJones @Greg Smith 0
            last edited by

            @Greg-Smith-0 said in Filtering my Find in Files search: help?:

            I am using an older version:
            Notepad++ v7.8.1 (64-bit)

            That will do it. The “exclusion” filter wasn’t introduced until v7.8.2 (see release notes). This was also mentioned in the online manual:
            -----
            As of Notepad++ v7.8.2, you can also exclude certain file patterns by prefixing the filter with a !
            -----

            Greg Smith 0G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Greg Smith 0G
              Greg Smith 0 @PeterJones
              last edited by

              @PeterJones I totally read that but didn’t realize the machine I’m using was out of date!

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
              • First post
                Last post
              The Community of users of the Notepad++ text editor.
              Powered by NodeBB | Contributors