Search for files within folders that match a regex pattern

[omotrl]

Hi,

I need to find txt files that reside in folders that have no dashes in their names. I tried

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ext:txt regex:!-

but it shows txt files in any folder.

[horst.epp]

What about with this one
folder:regex:!- child:*.txt

[omotrl]

This seems to display the target folders, while I need to display the txt files in those folders.

[NotNull]

I need to find txt files that reside in folders that have no dashes in their names.

Do you mean
1. No "-" in the parent folder (no c:\windows\123-abc\file.txt)?
-or-
2. No "-" anywhere in the path (no c:\123-abc\windows\file.txt)?


And why regex specifically? There might be solutions without regex too.

[NotNull]

Anyway, I probably won't have time later tonight, so for scenario 2. :

Regex:

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regex:"^[^-]*\\[^\\]+\.txt$"

Non-regex:

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ext:txt   !**-**\*.txt 

[omotrl]

No "-" in the immediate parent folder.
Modifying your non-regex, this seems to work:

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ext:txt   !*-*\*.txt

But what I am still interested in how to do it with regex.

[NotNull]

Non-regex alternative:

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ext:txt   !parentname:-

Regex (untested)

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regex:^.*\\[^\\-]+\\[^\\]+\.txt$ 

or

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regex:\\[^\\-]+\\[^\\]+\.txt$ 

but I think the first regex is faster (due to anchoring)

[omotrl]

Great, thanks a lot!

[NotNull]

You're welcome!

Still wondering why it had to be a regex solution specifically though ..

You are definitely not the only one, but now it is the time to ask why?
(a non-regex solution is typically more straightforward)

[omotrl]

You are right!
The reason for regex is somewhat convoluted and, as it turned out, completely unjustified indeed. The thing is before this particular search I did a few other searches where regex was justified, then I mechanically used regex with !-, but when I failed to produce the expected result, I knew that I needed just to add something to "regex:!-" to show that it refers to the folders. That's what I called "to do it with regex". By suggesting "parentname" you provided me with what I was looking for, getting rid of regex along the way.

But still a question on regex. Suppose I need to define parentname with regex, is it possible? Parentname:regex: doesn't seem to work.

[NotNull]

I now understand. Thanks for clarifying!

But still a question on regex.

Good question!

The general syntax is search-modifier:search-function:value [1]
regex: is a search modifier, whereas parentname: is a search function.

So this should do the trick:
regex:parentname:



[1] Or search-modifier:search-modifier:search-modifier:search-function:value if you need multiple modifiers.
The order of the modifiers is not important.

[omotrl]

Great! Thank you for the explanation!