Searches for strings in files.

FINDSTR [/B] [/E] [/L] [/R] [/S] [/I] [/X] [/V] [/N] [/M] [/O] [/P] [/F:file][/C:string] [/G:file] [/D:dir list] [/A:color attributes] [/OFF[LINE]]strings [[drive:][path]filename[ ...]]

/B                     Matches pattern if at the beginning of a line.
/E                     Matches pattern if at the end of a line.
/L                     Uses search strings literally.
/R                     Uses search strings as regular expressions.
/S                     Searches for matching files in the current directory and all subdirectories.
/I                      Specifies that the search is not to be case-sensitive.
/X                     Prints lines that match exactly.
/V                     Prints only lines that do not contain a match.
/N                     Prints the line number before each line that matches.
/M                    Prints only the filename if a file contains a match.
/O                     Prints character offset before each matching line.
/P                     Skip files with non-printable characters.
/OFF[LINE]     Do not skip files with offline attribute set.
/A:attr               Specifies color attribute with two hex digits. See "color /?"
/F:file                Reads file list from the specified file(/ stands for console).
/C:string            Uses specified string as a literal search string.
/G:file                Gets search strings from the specified file(/ stands for console).
/D:dir                Search a semicolon delimited list of directories
strings               Text to be searched for.
[drive:][path]filename
                         Specifies a file or files to search.

Use spaces to separate multiple search strings unless the argument is prefixed with /C. For example, 'FINDSTR "hello there" x.y' searches for "hello" or "there" in file x.y. 'FINDSTR /C:"hello there" x.y' searches for "hello there" in file x.y.

Regular expression quick reference:
.             Wildcard: any character
*             Repeat: zero or more occurrences of previous character or class
^             Line position: beginning of line
$             Line position: end of line
[class]     Character class: any one character in set
[^class]   Inverse class: any one character not in set
[x-y]       Range: any characters within the specified range
\x            Escape: literal use of metacharacter x
\<xyz      Word position: beginning of word
xyz\>      Word position: end of word

For full information on FINDSTR regular expressions refer to the online Command Reference.

Examples

 

Associated Commands

FIND

 

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Last Page Update: 08/03/2012

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