Zodiac Super OZ/MEDIADEPOT.ISO/FILES/16/BFIND605.ZIP/BFIND.DOC

Text File | 1996-04-20 | 13KB | 297 lines

BFIND.DOC                            1                         Revised: 04/20/96

The BFIND.EXE program adds Boolean logic to DOS's FIND command.  In  most  ways,
it's identical to the FIND command except:

  * Adds AND, OR, NOT, and XOR options to searches (finding all lines with
    "Apples" or "Bananas", for example).
  * Allows you to specify the starting column of the desired string.
  * Adds a pause (/P) option to have the output pause every 24 lines.
  * Avoids need to include the search string in quotation marks so you can
    use the program more easily in batch commands.
  * The input file specification can include standard DOS wildcards or an
    external file (@listfile) containing the files to be processed, e.g:
        BFIND /I "SOUND" *.DOC > TEMP.X
  * Allows you to skip the by-file heading information ("----- filename").
  * Can avoid showing file name header if no hits in the file (/-EMPTY option).
  * Handles DOS text files (lines end with CR/LF), Mac text files (lines end
    with CR), or Unix text files (lines end with LF).
  * Should be able to handle input files with line lengths of 5000 characters
    or more.
  * Allows you to remove non-text characters from the output or even specify
    your own character-translation file for them.

The only FIND feature that BFIND does *not* support is the  ability  to  specify
multilple single input  files  without  using  wildcards  ("FIND  ...  BRUCE.TXT
BRUCE.DOC" works--"BFIND ... BRUCE.TXT BRUCE.DOC" does not).  In  addition,  you
cannot do piping into BFIND (e.g. DIR | BFIND ...).

The DOS FIND command allows you to find lines in a text  file  which  contain  a
given string.  You can also have the program tell you how  many  lines  met  the
search criteria without actually viewing them which is an ideal way to find  out
how many times a given string appears in your file.  You can even  use  FIND  to
tell you how many total lines are in a given file just by  requesting  a  string
that you know will never appear in your file  like  "#X$S$"  and  using  the  /C
(count) parameter.

BFIND adds to these capabilities.  It gives you the power of AND, OR,  NOT,  and
XOR, allowing you to find any line, for example, that contains both "Apples" and
"Oranges" or to present any lines that contain either "Bananas" and "Pears".  In
addition, you can do column-specific searching, finding only those  lines,  say,
that contain "PRINT" beginning in column 10.

BFIND allows you to specify wildcards for the input file.  You can also put  the
list of file names to process in a text file and tell BFIND to process the files
listed therein.


Specifying parameters:

Parameters for this program can be set in the following ways.  The last  setting
encountered always wins:
  - Read from an *.INI file (see BRUCEINI.DOC file),
  - Through the use of an environmental variable (SET BFIND=whatever), or
  - From the command line (see "Syntax" below)



BFIND.DOC                            2                         Revised: 04/20/96

Syntax:

    BFIND [ /V | /-V ] [ /C | /-C ] [ /N | /-N ] [ /I | /-I ] [ /P | /-P ]
      [ /-HEADER | /HEADER ] [ /EMPTY | /-EMPTY ] [ /FILTER | /FILTER=filename ]
      [ /Iinitfile | /INULL ] [ /? ] [ /?&H ]
      { search } { filespec | @listfile } [ >filename ]

where:

"/V" says to find those items that do NOT match the specification.

"/-V" is the opposite of /V and is typically the default.

"/C" says to show the count of the items found (no individual lines).   One  use
for this is to count the number of lines in a file.  Search for all  lines  that
do *not* (/V) contain a totally improbable string and then tally them.  E.g.

        BFIND /V /C "&^&^&#" MYFILE.TXT

"/-C" is the opposite of /C and is typically the default.

"/N" says to number the output lines.

"/-N" is the opposite of /N and is typically the default.

"/I" says to make it a case-insensitive search.  So a search  for  "Apple"  will
find "APPLE", "apple", ApPle", etc.

"/-I" is the opposite of /I and is typically the default.  A search for  "Apple"
will not find "APPLE".

"/P" says to have the display pause every 24 lines.

"/-P" is the opposite of /P and is typically the default.

"/-HEADER" says to skip the normal -----infile output line that  appears  before
the results of the output.

"/HEADER" is the opposite of /-HEADER and is typically the default.

"/EMPTY" says that the -----infile information is to be shown even if  the  file
doesn't have any hits in it.  This is initially the default.

"/-EMPTY" says to only show the -----infile information if the file has hits.

"/FILTER" says to remove all nonprintable characters from the output.  Initially
defaults to "/-FILTER".

"/FILTER=filename" specifies that a filter is to be  applied  and  all  non-same
character replacements are in the file "filename".   This  feature  is  of  very
limited usefulness in the  BFIND  program  unless  you're  reading  native  word
processing files.  If this excites you for some reason, get the ZIP  READymm.ZIP
and read the documentation for the READY program.  The feature works identically
in both programs.


BFIND.DOC                            3                         Revised: 04/20/96

"/Iinitfile" says to read an initialization file with the file name  "initfile".
The file specification *must* contain a period.  Initfiles are described in  the
BRUCEINI.DOC file.  Initially defaults to "/IBFIND.INI".

"/INULL" says to skip loading the initialization file.

"/?" or "/HELP" or "HELP" shows you the syntax for the command.

"/?&H" gives you a hexadecimal and decimal conversion table.

"search" is described below.

"filespec" tells the routine which file or  files  are  to  be  processed.   The
specification can include path and wildcards  if  desired.   One  thing  I  find
useful with wildcards is that is allows me to create an output that concatenates
all of the input files together with the typical headers (/HEADER) that separate
each portion.  This requires searching for all lines in a file so  you  need  to
use the  /V  option  and  look  for  an  improbable  string.   For  example,  to
concatenate all *.TXT files together as a new file called TEMP.NEW and have  the
little header between each, say this:

        BFIND /V "&#$#" *.TXT > TEMP.NEW

"@listfile" allows you to have a variety of file specifications saved in a  text
file named "listfile".  Each line  in  the  file  should  consist  of  one  file
specification, each of which can include a path and wildcards if desired.  Blank
lines and lines beginning with semi-colons, colons, or quotes are  ignored.   An
example using this is provided at the end of this documentation.

">filename" redirects the output to a text file.  This automatically invokes the
/-P option.  This is useful for saving the found lines into another  file.   For
example:

        BFIND "Bruce" TEMP.TXT > TEMP2.TXT



BFIND.DOC                            4                         Revised: 04/20/96

For search, the syntax is:

  [ ( ]... search_item [ boolean [ ( ]... search_item [ ) ]...] [ ) ]...

where:

  ( and )     are used to group items
  search_item is shown below
  boolean     is AND, OR, or XOR (NOT is included with search_item)

for search_item, the syntax is:

  [ NOT ]  "string" [ column ]

where:

  NOT         is obvious
  string      the string to search; the quotation marks are typically not
              required unless the string contains a space or a reserved word
  column      is the column in which the string must be found.

So, let's cover some examples:

        BFIND "Bugs Bunny" OR "Elmer Fudd" TEST.TXT

Finds any lines in the file TEST.TXT containing either "Bugs  Bunny"  or  "Elmer
Fudd" in them.

        BFIND (Apples or Oranges) AND NOT Pears TEST2.TXT

Finds any lines in the file  TEST2.TXT  which  contain  the  words  "Apples"  or
"Oranges" in them and ignores any  lines  containing  "Pears".   Note  that  the
quotes around the search words are not required unless the words include  spaces
or unless they could be confused with some other keywords.   "BFIND  OR  OR  AND
TEST3.TXT" might cause the program to get confused since "OR" and  "AND",  which
you want to look for, are also keywords.

        BFIND /C "Bugs Bunny" AND Martians TEST.TXT

Gives you a total for the number of  lines  containing  both  "Bugs  Bunny"  and
"Martians".

The search string can include any text characters.  It can  also  contain  ASCII
codes, created either using the Alt key in combination with the  numeric  keypad
(e.g. Alt-228 to get a Sigma character) or else by embedding a hexadecimal  code
(in the form &Hxx) or a decimal code (in the form  \nnn)  in  the  text.   These
codes are described in the BRUCEHEX.DOC file.  For example, to find  the  smiley
face character in a file called TEST.TXT, either of the following work:

        BFIND "
" TEST.TXT
        BFIND \001 TEST.TXT


BFIND.DOC                            5                         Revised: 04/20/96

If you search for more than one word without using  a  Boolean  operator,  BFIND
presumes you wanted the words searched with an "AND" Boolean operator.  So this:

        BFIND Print Form *.TXT

is the same thing as saying:

        BFIND Print AND Form *.TXT

If you wanted to search for the *phrase* "Print Form", you'd have to say:

        BFIND "Print Form" *.TXT

You can press the Esc key to abort the search early.

BFIND, unlike FIND, typically doesn't require the search string to be in quotes.
As a result, you can create a text file (presume it's  called  C:\BAT\PHONE.TXT)
containing phone numbers or  something  and  then  create  a  batch  file  (like
PHONE.BAT) that looks like this:

        BFIND %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 C:\BAT\PHONE.TXT

When you want to find a phone number, you just say  "PHONE  name".   This  is  a
little more natural that using FIND which would require  that  you  enclose  the
name in quotes.  You can still use the Boolean operators  in  BFIND;  the  batch
file above would allow up to five parameters.

If you have multiple phone books, use the @listfile option in  the  batch  file.
For example, I have four phone files I search; a personal  one  (PHONES.TXT),  a
list of e-mail addresses (PHONMAIL.TXT), a list of  work-related  phone  numbers
that  are  distributed  to  the  office  (EBBPHONE.TXT),  and  an  office   list
(OBAPHONE.TXT).  My @listfile is called  C:\MINE\PHONE.LST  and  contains  these
lines:

        c:\mine\phones.txt
        c:\mine\phonmail.txt
        c:\mine\ebbphone.txt
        c:\mine\obaphone.txt

My PHONE.BAT file contains this line:

        BFIND /I /P /-EMPTY %1 %2 %3 %4 @C:\MINE\PHONE.LST



BFIND.DOC                            6                         Revised: 04/20/96

Return codes:

BFIND returns the following ERRORLEVEL codes:
        0 = no problems, string found
        1 = no problems, string not found
      255 = syntax problems, file not found, or /? requested


Author:

This program was written by Bruce Guthrie of Wayne Software.  It is free for use
and redistribution provided relevant documentation is kept with the program,  no
changes are made to the program or documentation, and it  is  not  bundled  with
commercial programs or charged for separately.  People who need to bundle it  in
for-sale packages must pay a $50 registration fee to  "Wayne  Software"  at  the
following address.

Additional information about this and other Wayne Software programs can be found
in the file BRUCEymm.DOC which should be included  in  the  original  ZIP  file.
("ymm" is replaced by the last digit of the year and the two digit month of  the
release.  BRUCE512.DOC came out in December 1995.  This same  naming  convention
is used in naming the ZIP file that this program was included in.) Comments  and
suggestions can also be sent to:

                Bruce Guthrie
                Wayne Software
                113 Sheffield St.
                Silver Spring, MD 20910

                fax: [phone]
                e-mail: [e-mail]
                http://hjs.geol.uib.no/guthrie/

See BRUCEymm.DOC file for additional contact information.

Foreign users:  Please provide an Internet e-mail address in all correspondence.