FIND

Searches for a specific string of text in a file or files.

After searching the specified files, FIND displays any lines of text
that contain the specified string.

Syntax

    FIND [/V] [/C] [/N] [/I] "string" [[drive:][path]filename[...]]

Parameters

"string"
    Specifies the group of characters you want to search for. You must
    enclose the text for string in quotation marks.

[drive:][path]filename
    Specifies the location and name of the file in which to search for
    the specified string.

Switches

/V
    Displays all lines not containing the specified string.

/C
    Displays only a count of the lines that contain the specified string.

/N
    Precedes each line with the file's line number.

/I
    Specifies that the search is not to be case-sensitive.

FIND Notes

Specifying a string

Unless you specify the /I switch, FIND searches for exactly what you
specify for string. For example, to the FIND command the characters "a"
and "A" are different. If you were to use the /I switch, however, FIND
would ignore case and search for "a" and "A" as if they were the same
character.

If the string you want to search for contains quotation marks, you must
use two quotation marks for each quotation mark contained within the
string.

Using FIND as a filter

If you omit a filename, FIND acts as a filter, taking input from the
MS-DOS standard source (usually the keyboard, a pipe, or a redirected
file) and displaying any lines that contain the string.

Using wildcards with FIND

You cannot use wildcards (* and ?) in filenames or extensions that you
specify with the FIND command. To search for a string in a set of files
you specify with wildcards, you can use the FIND command in a FOR
command.

Using the /V or /N switch with the /C switch

If you specify the /C and /V switches in the same command, FIND displays
a count of the lines that do not contain the specified string. If you
specify the /C and /N switches in the same command, FIND ignores the /N
switch.

Using FIND in files with carriage returns

The FIND command does not recognize carriage returns. When you use FIND
to search for text in a file that includes carriage returns, you must
limit the search string to text that can be found between carriage
returnsthat is, a string that is not likely to be interrupted by a
carriage return. For example, FIND does not report a match for the
string "tax file" wherever a carriage return occurs between the word
"tax" and the word "file".

FIND exit codes

The following list shows each exit code and a brief description of its
meaning:

0
    The search was completed successfully and at least one match was
    found.

1
    The search was completed successfully, but no matches were found.

2
    The search was not completed successfully. In this case, an error
    occurred during the search, and FIND cannot report whether any
    matches were found.

You can use the ERRORLEVEL parameter on the <If> command line in a batch
program to process exit codes returned by FIND.

FIND Examples

To display all lines from the file PENCIL.AD that contain the string
"Pencil Sharpener", type the following command:

    find "Pencil Sharpener" pencil.ad

To find a string that contains text within quotation marks, you must
enclose the entire string in quotation marks and, in addition, use two
quotation marks for each quotation mark contained within the string, as
shown in the following example:

    find "The scientists labeled their paper ""for discussion only."" It
    is not a final report." report.doc

If you want to search for a set of files, you can use the FIND command
with the FOR command. The following command uses this method to search
the current directory for files that have the extension .BAT; in each
file found, the command searches for the string "PROMPT":

    for %f in (*.bat) do find "PROMPT" %f

Suppose you want FIND to search your hard disk to find and display the
filenames on drive C that contain the string "CPU". To do this, you can
use the pipe (|) to direct the results of a DIR command to FIND, as
shown in the following example:

    dir c:\ /s /b | find "CPU"

Before using a pipe for redirection, you should set the TEMP environment
variable in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

Since FIND searches are case-sensitive and since DIR produces uppercase
output, you must either type the string "CPU" in uppercase letters or
use the /I switch with FIND.

End of Document
