How to write a search pattern to include a space in findstr?

Question

I want to search all files in a certain directory for occurrences of statements such as

  Load frmXYZ

I am on Windows 7, using the findstr command. I tried:

  findstr /n Load.*frm *.*

But this gives me unwanted results such as:

 If ABCFormLoaded Then Unload frmPQR

So I tried to put a blankspace between Load and frm and gave the command like this:

 findstr /n Load frm *.*

But this simply searched for all occurrences of the word load or all occurrences of the word frm. How do I get around this problem?

Aren't you missing the `/r` option to enable regexes, anyway? — Joey, Mar 20 '12 at 15:21
It says /r uses search strings as regular expressions. So does it mean that "space" will then be treated as part of the regular expression? Let me try. — CodeBlue, Mar 20 '12 at 15:27
This is a few years stale, but I generally just use `.` instead of space, since most of the time I care about the other letters in the expression by position and whether the space is really a space isn't as important. `findstr /n /r Load.frm *.*` (Don't get me wrong, `/c` is useful, but half the time it doesn't seem to work for me anyways) — ebyrob, Aug 01 '18 at 14:34

score 45 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 01 '17 at 15:57

If you use spaces, you need the /C: option to pass the the literal string(s) to the regex /R option.
Once the it gets to the regex, it's treated as a regex.

That said, this is typical MS trash.

Use two regex search strings

The bottom line is that you have to use 2 strings to handle cases where
Load frm is at the beginning like so:

Load frm apples bananas carrots

OR in the middle like so:

some other text Load frm and more.

Version without character classes

Below is using XP sp3, windows 7 may be different, both are trash!

findstr /N /R /C:" *Load *frm" /C:"^Load *frm" test.txt

7:Load frm is ok    
8:    Load     frm is ok

Mind the Colon

NOTE: The colon in /C: is MANDATORY for this to work.

If you leave out the colon then findstr's error handling is just to treat /C as an invalid option, ignore that invalid option and go ahead anyway. Leading to unexpected and unwanted output.

Equivalent version using character classes

findstr /N /R /C:"[ ][ ]*Load[ ][ ]*frm" /C:"^Load[ ][ ]*frm" test.txt

Character classes breakdown

// The first regex search string breaks down like this:
[ ]   // require 1 space
[ ]*  // optional many spaces
Load  // literal 'Load'
[ ]   // require 1 space
[ ]*  // optional many spaces
frm   // literal 'frm'

// The second regex search string breaks down like this:
^     // beginning of line
Load  // literal 'Load'
[ ]   // require 1 space
[ ]*  // optional many spaces
frm   // literal 'frm'

A real regex might be \bLoad\s+frm

If it is trash, honestly I can't see the point in answering to such questions. Unless you are a dustman. — Neurotransmitter, Aug 19 '16 at 23:16
@TranslucentCloud - Even trash has to be handled. Hey, look at that, it's trash: `have to use 2 strings to handle cases where 'Load frm' is at the beginning OR in the middle` — , Aug 20 '16 at 17:21
Looks like that character class thing does not work on Windows 10 any more: `echo 1.999 K| findstr /R "\....[ ]K"` — Thomas Weller, Aug 29 '20 at 07:57

Joey · Answer 2 · 2012-03-20T15:46:05.553

33

Use the /c option:

findstr /n /c:"Load frm" *.*

From the help (findstr /?):

/C:string  Uses specified string as a literal search string.

edited Mar 20 '12 at 15:46

answered Mar 20 '12 at 15:19

Joey

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What if there is more than one blank space between "Load" and "frm"? – CodeBlue Mar 20 '12 at 15:22
1

`[ ]+`. But you'd need to use `/r`, too to enable regexes. – Joey Mar 20 '12 at 15:46
1

I tried findstr /n /r /c:"Load[]+ frm" followed by asterisk dot asterisk. But now it shows nothing. – CodeBlue Mar 20 '12 at 15:48
Findstr has its own lame little implementation of regex. It does not include '+' as a metacharacter. – LinuxDisciple Feb 01 '17 at 20:40
2

Well, then use `[ ][ ]*`. Regexes don't strictly need `+`. – Joey Feb 02 '17 at 07:20

score 9 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Use word delimiter regex

I used the the special \< "beginning of word" regex symbol.

I tried this on the Win10 version of findstr. But according to Microsoft this special \< symbol has been in findstr.exe ever since WinXP.

Full (and painful) breakdown of many options that do NOT work below.

At the very bottom: what actually worked.

The sample file itself

C:\>type lines.txt
Load frmXYZ                         // This line should match.
If ABCFormLoaded Then Unload frmPQR // This line should NOT match.
pears Load frm grapes pineapples    // This line should match.
                                    // This blank line should NOT match.
LOAD FRMXYZ                         // This line should match.
IF ABCFORMLOADED THEN UNLOAD FRMPQR // This line should NOT match.
PEARS LOAD FRM GRAPES PINEAPPLES    // This line should match.
                                    // This blank line should NOT match.
load frmxyz                         // This line should match.
if abcformloaded then unload frmpqr // This line should NOT match.
pears load frm grapes pineapples    // This line should match.

Wrong. With regular execution space is treated as delimiter.

C:\>type lines.txt | findstr /N "Load frm"
1:Load frmXYZ                         // This line should match.
2:If ABCFormLoaded Then Unload frmPQR // This line should NOT match.
3:pears Load frm grapes pineapples    // This line should match.
9:load frmxyz                         // This line should match.
10:if abcformloaded then unload frmpqr // This line should NOT match.
11:pears load frm grapes pineapples    // This line should match.

Wrong: With Regex option space is STILL treated as delimiter.

C:\>type lines.txt | findstr /N /R "Load frm"
1:Load frmXYZ                         // This line should match.
2:If ABCFormLoaded Then Unload frmPQR // This line should NOT match.
3:pears Load frm grapes pineapples    // This line should match.
9:load frmxyz                         // This line should match.
10:if abcformloaded then unload frmpqr // This line should NOT match.
11:pears load frm grapes pineapples    // This line should match.

More right but still wrong. With /C option we now get preserved spaces but don't find other character cases.

C:\>type lines.txt | findstr /N /R /C:"Load frm"
1:Load frmXYZ                         // This line should match.
3:pears Load frm grapes pineapples    // This line should match.

Wrong. /I for "Ignore Case" does not help. We get matches from within words we did not want.

C:\>type lines.txt | findstr /N /R /I /C:"Load frm"
1:Load frmXYZ                         // This line should match.
2:If ABCFormLoaded Then Unload frmPQR // This line should NOT match.
3:pears Load frm grapes pineapples    // This line should match.
5:LOAD FRMXYZ                         // This line should match.
6:IF ABCFORMLOADED THEN UNLOAD FRMPQR // This line should NOT match.
7:PEARS LOAD FRM GRAPES PINEAPPLES    // This line should match.
9:load frmxyz                         // This line should match.
10:if abcformloaded then unload frmpqr // This line should NOT match.
11:pears load frm grapes pineapples    // This line should match.

Right. Use special "Beginning of word" regex symbol. Matches beginning-of-line or space.

Either case sensitive:

C:\>type lines.txt | findstr /N /R /C:"\<Load frm"
1:Load frmXYZ                         // This line should match.
3:pears Load frm grapes pineapples    // This line should match.

or ignoring case

C:\>type lines.txt | findstr /N /R /I /C:"\<Load frm"
1:Load frmXYZ                         // This line should match.
3:pears Load frm grapes pineapples    // This line should match.
5:LOAD FRMXYZ                         // This line should match.
7:PEARS LOAD FRM GRAPES PINEAPPLES    // This line should match.
9:load frmxyz                         // This line should match.
11:pears load frm grapes pineapples    // This line should match.

score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 30 '15 at 11:19

This piece of code will only allow letters, numbers, underscore and white space in keyword:

set /p keyword="Enter keyword: " || Set keyword=

set keyword_replaced=%keyword: =_%

echo %keyword_replaced%| findstr /r "[^0-9a-zA-Z_]" > nul
if errorlevel 1 goto noexit
echo special characters in keyword not allowed (except space and _), TERMINATING
timeout 4
exit /b 0
:noexit