FINDTEXT: search for text in any file

Description

File search utility. Searches for character strings in one file or in an entire library. Options to select files in a library, ignore character case, and print or display the results.

Categories

Compare & Search
Program Maintenance
System Operation

Related files

FINDTEXT: Object file for program.

User Instructions

This utility searches any file for occurrences of a single character string of up to 66 characters. It can search through any file type and includes options to display and print the results of the search, ignore character case (upper or lower case), and to select files within a library.

To use interactively, enter the string to be searched and the file to be searched. If a library search is desired, leave the FILE field blank; to select files within this library, change the SELECT field to YES. If you wish to ignore case, set the SEARCH field to YES. Finally, choose the output form (DISPLAY, PRINT, or BOTH).

When the search is complete, the EOJ screen will display the number of occurrences found. Press PF(16) to exit here or PF(01) to return to select a new search string or library. (Note: exiting from the EOJ screen will set the return code from FINDTEXT to the number of occurrences found. This may confuse some menu programs that expect a zero return code.)

The PRINT option produces a report with the file name, location, type, and up to 78 characters surrounding the search item. If the file is a source file, the entire line is displayed.

Programmer Instructions

FINDTEXT is completely GETPARM-equipped and can be run under program control. When used interactively, it shows the name of the file currently being searched. This display is suppressed if FINDTEXT detects that the run is non-interactive (i.e. run in background); thus, searches can be conducted in background under procedure control. For similar reasons, the MODE field is automatically set to PRINT when used in background, since DISPLAY is not appropriate.

If you are using the PRINT option and expect a large listing, you may wish to increase the allocated size of the print file. To to do, use a procedure to control the output GETPARM for the file (PRNAME = PRINT). The default record count is 1000.

Files searched by FINDTEXT are opened in INPUT mode, and must not be in use (or opened INPUT by other users). Note that the correction GETPARM for such conflicts will sometimes abort a background job, so it is best to have exclusive access to the libraries to be searched before running the search. Naturally, the user (or FINDTEXT itself) must have access privileges for the files to be examined.

The return code from FINDTEXT (if the program exits from the EOJ screen) is set to the number of occurrences found. This information can be trapped by the calling program and used as a count.

INPUT       Press (RETURN) to continue, PF(13) for
            documentation, or PF(16) to exit program.

  TEXT      (blank)     The character string to be searched
                        for.  Can be up to 66 characters in
                        length; quotes are optional.

  FILE      (blank)     The file or library to be searched.
  LIBRARY   [inlib]     Leave FILE blank to search an entire
  VOLUME    [invol]     library.

  SELECT    NO          Set to YES to select files from a
                        library (interactive use only).

  SEARCH    NO          Set to YES to ignore character case
                        (e.g. upper or lower case); note that
                        this slows the search process.

  MODE      DISPLAY     Set to PRINT to produce a report with
                        no screen display or BOTH for both
                        options.

EOJ         Press PF(01) to restart or PF(16) to exit program.

Example of use

Extremely helpful in finding text information in a broad range of file types. Useful for source file searches, too, although it only accepts a single text string and library so multiple runs must be made.

Comments

The best of the public-domain search utilities.