Search Syntax Questions

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3o5v9867zsi378
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2015 12:51 am

Search Syntax Questions

Post by 3o5v9867zsi378 »

hi

i'm getting no results for the dm:today query or the "size:" queries ...

i've read the help but i can't work out what the stupid thing i'm doing is ...

would be very grateful for some help

love the program btw!

3o5v9867zsi378
3o5v9867zsi378
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2015 12:51 am

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by 3o5v9867zsi378 »

hi again

not sure why but all the searches have now started working ... i upgraded from 1.2 to 1.3 ... could that have done it?

was a new index created?

anyhow, all working now, thanks

3o5v9867zsi378
Ambaquista
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2015 1:58 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by Ambaquista »

How to search ONLY in the filename, excluding the extension?

Example:
I´ve 1000+s of files *.MHT (all included HTML) and I need to find files with "mht" in the name, files about the MHT format, p. ex.

Any possibility, in Everything?

Thanks
therube
Posts: 4561
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:48 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by therube »

Code: Select all

mht  !.mht
Search for "mht", but not ".mht".

Note that it would NOT find a file named: testing.mht.123.MHT

You could also mess around with Regular Expressions, if need be.
Ambaquista
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2015 1:58 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by Ambaquista »

Thank you, it works!
I´ve tried mht!.mht (without space before the !) and didn´t work.
Works also with just one space before the !
Thank you again
gggirlgeek
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2010 4:54 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by gggirlgeek »

Just came across another of void's clever Macros in a post here.

child:<string>


Folders containing objects that match the specified search

for example, find folders that contain .mp3 files

Code: Select all

child:*.mp3
find folders that contain objects created in the last hour

Code: Select all

child:* dc:last1hours
(notice the space before the next filter!)
Hmm
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Aug 20, 2016 9:01 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by Hmm »

Perhaps I am missing something but none of these more complex syntax work. Where are you supposed to type them in? For example, I am trying to find files created or modified on 2015-10-31

I even tried this synatx with no results: 1:* dc:last1hours. I entered it in the search bar. The only search that works is wild cards or typing normal file names.
void
Developer
Posts: 15038
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by void »

Where are you supposed to type them in?
Type your searches into the search box at the top of Everything.
For example, I am trying to find files created or modified on 2015-10-31
How are dates displayed on your computer? 31/10/2015? 10/31/2015? 2015/10/31?

Type in dates in the same format as how they are displayed on your computer.

Please try searching for:
dm:31/10/2015

Use / to separate day/month/year.
I even tried this synatx with no results: 1:* dc:last1hours. I entered it in the search bar. The only search that works is wild cards or typing normal file names.
1:* should not match anything, what are you trying to search for here?

Note: Please make sure regex is disabled from the Search menu, search functions will not work when regex is enabled.
Please try the Everything 1.4 beta and look at Search -> Advanced Search... to help with search syntax.
wddt
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 3:54 am

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by wddt »

This is VERY basic, but I had trouble with it so someone else might. I couldn't seem to get Everything to "sort by date" and I was going crazy. Turns out it was the way I had E set up. When I made ALL the Date Columns VISIBLE (modified, created, accessed and recently changed), the date-related functions worked. (Answer to an un-asked question, I guess.)
marius
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2017 6:28 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by marius »

dm:april shows modified in last april.
is it possible to show files modified in april(month) from all years?
thanks!
Just Visiting
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2011 10:38 pm

Search specific drive only

Post by Just Visiting »

I can't figure this out. Intuitively, one should be able to enter "K:*.*" without quotes. But that is not an operation Everything understands.

What is the workaround?
void
Developer
Posts: 15038
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by void »

k:*.* should find all files on your k: drive. Please make sure you have regex disabled from the Search menu.
searching for k: will also work.

Do you have any active filters or other search options enabled from the Search menu?
D1ma
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2017 2:18 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by D1ma »

Hi everyone!
Looking for help: I want to search all files wich were created in specific time.
E.g. I use dc:13/09/2017..13/09/2017 but I want to add time 14:00-18:00.
ovg
Posts: 294
Joined: Thu Oct 27, 2016 7:19 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by ovg »

2D1ma

Everything Help:

Date Syntax:
year
month/year or year/month depending on locale settings
day/month/year, month/day/year or year/month/day depending on locale settings
YYYY[-MM[-DD[Thh[:mm[:ss[.sss]]]]]]
YYYYMM[DD[Thh[mm[ss[.sss]]]]]
Eg
dc:19-05-2013T17:05:31..19-05-2013T21:02 working fine for me ....
Stamimail
Posts: 1121
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2013 9:05 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by Stamimail »

@void
Should add Time to Advanced Search?
D1ma
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2017 2:18 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by D1ma »

@ovg thank you. I missed the "T" letter in my experiments.

How about adding examples for search syntax, not only general expressions?
void
Developer
Posts: 15038
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by void »

The help here is a little dated, please check:
http://www.voidtools.com/support/everyt ... ate_syntax for more up-to-date help.

I'll consider adding time input to the advanced search.
lgjmac
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Dec 26, 2017 10:49 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by lgjmac »

Hi there.
Everything is great.

I have a specific search which brings to light some questions that may not be clear to other users too

The uncertainty regards:
1. operator priority e.g. regex:child:expression works but child:regex:expression does not
2. with OR syntax expressionSPACE|SPACEexpression and expression|expression seems to be equal
3. use of brackets <> can operators be inside brackets?
4. use of child: parameter ... it seems child:pic: doesn't work?
5. using OR statements in regex filename search as a workaround?
6. do operators only act on subsequent expressions until the next space e,g, is child:*.jpg|child:*.png the same as child:<*.jpg|*.png> the same and different to child:*.jpg child:*.png

Probably some basic coding issues lacking for me.

I am looking for:
- a list of folders
- that contain pictures
- where the pictures have names with 2016 2017 or 2018 in the filename (e.g. Screenshot_20161202.png or 20170104_123320.jpg)
- which may be in folders labelled in spanish or english
- excluding some folders


Does this seems right?
child:*.jpg|child:*.png|child:*.gif|child:*.bmp|child:*.jpeg|child:*.img regex:child:^.*201[678].* nodiacritics: !"C:\windows" !"C:\system" !"C:\program"


Thank you
HerbM
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2018 3:18 am

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by HerbM »

Great thread. Caused me to find this type of info in the manual -- didn't know these macros and keywords existing/worked for es.exe.

exe: & zip: (maybe more) don't seem to be working from es.exe (version ES 1.1.0.10).

None of these work:
es exe:
es exe:*
es exe: rg
es exe: *rg*
es zip: powershell
es zip: *powershell*
These work:
es rg.exe
es rg.exe -w
es powershell*.zip
I was using regular expressions for most every complicated search, or post filtering with PowerShell and ripgrep. (All useful tricks but these macros are much simpler and easier.)

Nice would be to support square bracket character ranges in simple WILDCARD searches. PowerShell supports this, CMD.exe doesn't; Linux/Unix generally does: dir wmiclasse[a-s0-9].txt finds wmiclasses.txt etc.

I LOVE this program.

For me it would be ho-hum without es.exe, but together these are truly amazing. Use them dozens of times a day, everyday. Thanks.
void
Developer
Posts: 15038
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by void »

ES does not support custom filters, this is on my TODO list.
For now you will need to manually expand these filters, eg: instead of searching for exe: search for:
ext:bat;cmd;exe;msi;scr
Nice would be to support square bracket character ranges in simple WILDCARD searches. PowerShell supports this, CMD.exe doesn't; Linux/Unix generally does: dir wmiclasse[a-s0-9].txt finds wmiclasses.txt etc.
I might add an UI option to do this, for the next version of Everything I support two wildcard functions, one that is used in your common open file dialog, eg: *.txt and another which support character ranges with [], # = digit and backslash escapes (eg: \u00C6).
However, this is currently only used when searching content with the wildcard: modifier, such as wildcard:content:"[abc]*[123]"

Thanks for the suggestions.
HerbM
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2018 3:18 am

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by HerbM »

NP, I just thought the EXE: macro was supposed to be available after reading the above.

There are a few ways to get at this.

One simple improvement for the "ext:" macro would be to ignore a leading '.' (dot) since by definition all extensions have a dot, at least implicitly.

As is you can't use this syntax to get at these easily:
es where ext:%PathExt% && rem because PathExt is formed with the dot present
es comp ext:$Env:PathExt ## PowerShell version
You can do tedious PowerShell tricks like
es comp.* ext:"$($Env:PathExt.replace('.',''))"
# or cmd version
cmd /c es comp.* ext:%pathext:.=%
In my experience there are VERY FEW people who know how to do Cmd.exe environment string replacement like the above.

FYI: I have long (20+ years) had a comp.cmd or comp.bat to feed "n" (No I don't want to compare more files) into comp.exe.
Stupid comp.exe was one of the poorest designed DOS/cmd programs ever. In DOS days, I used to just go in with a Hex editor and bypass the call to the "question" subroutine by changing one byte, but that's impractical today when working on dozens or tens of thousands of network computers.)

BTW: Another useful trick is to have a "file of Ns": In my Bat directory are 2 files named N and N.txt which have 64K lines of nothing but N (for No) to allow redirection to commands that ask questions but which only accept switches for Y(es) or have no switch at all to avoid such questions. Xcopy is in the former category, comp in the latter.

There is a Y and Y.txt also, but these are seldom required.
jkl
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Mar 28, 2016 5:43 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by jkl »

wddt wrote: Mon Aug 29, 2016 1:34 pm This is VERY basic, but I had trouble with it so someone else might. I couldn't seem to get Everything to "sort by date" and I was going crazy. Turns out it was the way I had E set up. When I made ALL the Date Columns VISIBLE (modified, created, accessed and recently changed), the date-related functions worked. (Answer to an un-asked question, I guess.)
Thank you! :)

This was driving me mad with something similar when doing a X:\Ample\Path folder: dc:last240hours search that displayed no results despite dozens of folders having been created in that span. Decided to enable every column to be displayed and make note of it for future installations because I will likely forget this perceived oddity (but perhaps useful oddity should eliminating a column help to narrow the results).
TomDupe
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Apr 21, 2019 10:58 am

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by TomDupe »

Is it possible to search for the EFU file name ?

ie to specify the EFU file name in the search query


( This would be useful to me as I have numerous EFU files , that everything loads. 50 at present, but maybe approaching 100 when I index all hard disks )
everyro
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jun 05, 2019 5:24 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by everyro »

I'm trying to understand basic syntax. Much of the syntax help at the top of this page it's too technical for me. Some theoretical examples:

1-- find all .ico files in D:\graphics.
I tried

Code: Select all

*.ico D:\graphics
, but nothing comes up. There are actually several hundred, all in one folder.
Then I tried a space:

Code: Select all

 *.ico D: \Graphics
Still nothing.

2--all .log files on drive C containing the word "Activity."

3--all .log files on C, excluding C:/ProgramData and C:\Documents and Settings
void
Developer
Posts: 15038
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by void »

Please make sure no search options are checked under the Search menu.
Was Regex enabled checked?
1-- find all .ico files in D:\graphics.
*.ico D:\graphics\
2--all .log files on drive C containing the word "Activity."
*.log c: content:activity
3--all .log files on C, excluding C:/ProgramData and C:\Documents and Settings
*.log c: !c:\programdata\ !"c:\documents and settings\"
galneon
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Jun 02, 2013 1:36 am

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by galneon »

I need to go through something similar to a de-duping process but without mirror duplicates. I just need to get rid of some obsolete versions.

All the files I need to deal with are in directories of the same name, but on many different drives (some indexed by EFU, plus local drives in the regular DB). I need Everything to display the contents of every directory called '\data - work' so that I have the contents of all '\data - work' directories displayed at once for easy management.

Is this possible? I've read all help but can't figure it out.

Edit: Dumbest post ever. All I needed was "\data - work\" with the double quotes to escape spaces.
everyro
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jun 05, 2019 5:24 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by everyro »

Thanks, void. I never received the notification of your reply.

"Was Regex enabled checked?"

I don't know what Regex is.
Stamimail
Posts: 1121
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2013 9:05 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by Stamimail »

everyro wrote: Tue Jun 18, 2019 10:55 pmI don't know what Regex is.
Regex is a short of "Regular expressions", and this is an advanced way for searching (requires some learning though).
Anyway, you need to look at the "match" options under
Menu|Search
and ensure that all "match" options are disabled.
qsdnlj
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2019 9:51 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by qsdnlj »

I have a folder named 'nd', but when I search with 'folder:nd', it brings up all sorts of folders containing words like 'index' and 'windows'. How can I search for whole folder names instead of partial folder names? Thanks!
tuska
Posts: 904
Joined: Thu Jul 13, 2017 9:14 am

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by tuska »

qsdnlj wrote: Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:01 pm I have a folder named 'nd', but when I search with 'folder:nd', it brings up all sorts of folders containing words like 'index' and 'windows'. How can I search for whole folder names instead of partial folder names? Thanks!

Code: Select all

wfn:folder:nd
http://www.voidtools.com/support/everyt ... #modifiers
qsdnlj
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2019 9:51 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by qsdnlj »

tuska wrote: Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:35 pm
qsdnlj wrote: Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:01 pm I have a folder named 'nd', but when I search with 'folder:nd', it brings up all sorts of folders containing words like 'index' and 'windows'. How can I search for whole folder names instead of partial folder names? Thanks!

Code: Select all

wfn:folder:nd
http://www.voidtools.com/support/everyt ... #modifiers
Thanks, that works! Unfortunately, the page you sent me to doesn't say anything about folder names: "Match the whole filename or match anywhere in the filename." Maybe that ought to be updated to something like "Match the whole filename (or folder name) or match anywhere in the filename (or folder name)."

Thanks again.
ovg
Posts: 294
Joined: Thu Oct 27, 2016 7:19 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by ovg »

qsdnlj wrote: Thu Jul 04, 2019 2:29 am ... Unfortunately, the page you sent me to doesn't say anything about folder names...
There is nothing to update - folder is a file with attribute "D", containing information about files :-)
electronCdj
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Apr 26, 2020 6:32 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by electronCdj »

First off, this tool is amazing. Thank you for your work.

The problem I am facing is that I am searching 4 or 5 hard drives full of audio in random places. Most are MP3 with proper ID3 tags for various attributes, and specifically, GENRE. What I am trying to do is get the *genre=house or genre=tech house* to return results.

I have a few variations with no success, such as

Code: Select all

genre:house|genre:"tech house" 
but really, I can't get any results just on

Code: Select all

genre:house
.

I have looked high and low on both the forums and help files and can't figure out the syntax. any help would be greatly appreciated.
therube
Posts: 4561
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:48 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by therube »

Start small.
ID3v1 is fully supported.
ID3v2, ID3v2.3 and ID3v2.4 are loosely supported.

ID3 tags and FLAC tags are not indexed. Searching for ID3 tags and FLAC tags is slow, combine with other searches for the best performance.
Only ID3 tags in mp3 files are currently supported.
So as a start, limit your search to particular files with particular tag types, with particular tags.
(At the least it will be faster.)

Likewise shorten what you search for.
So instead of "house" search for "ho" or even "h".
"ho" finds symphonic & also Euro-House.
"euro" finds "Eastern Europe" & Euro-House.

In my case, it's finding:
"M:\MUSIC\___fromC\_singles\" genre:euro

Code: Select all

Blumchen - 2000 Die welt gehort dir - 03 - Sensucht.mp3
oy_division-oy_division-11-lyuba_bratzi_lyuba_and_moldover_freylechs.mp3
And then if I,
"M:\MUSIC\___fromC\_singles\" <genre:euro | title:ann>
, I also find, in Title: Wanna:

Code: Select all

The Ramones - 1997 We re Outta Here - 09 - I Wanna Be Sedated.mp3

Assuming your files/tags are compatible, assuming that some do have Genre: house, I would think that your search, genre:house, should be returning results.

Ensure that you don't have any other filters in effect that might be negating your searches.
Like maybe you've enabled Regex by accident...
najib.dajani
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2020 12:52 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by najib.dajani »

Greetings from Cairo,

First of all I would like to thank you for a great program. I use it every day and have been for years.

I am having a little trouble using wildcards; or at least as I am used to them.

When I search for wall*.*, I expect it to return all files and folders that start with wall followed by any number of characters. However what I get is the same as if I had typed wall by itself. Regex does not help.

I read the syntax help and most of the help file before posting here. I know I am missing something minor.

Thanks again for an indispensable program.
Stamimail
Posts: 1121
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2013 9:05 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by Stamimail »

Please try:
Menu| Tools > Options > Search tab >
and enable:
[v] Match whole filename when using wildcards
najib.dajani
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2020 12:52 pm

Re: Search Syntax Help

Post by najib.dajani »

Thank you very much. This works.
All the best,
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