BASIC-DOS

FIND

FIND [/C] [/I] [/N] [/R] [/V] string [file]…

A filter that displays the lines of input (or of each file, or with wildcards (? and *), every matching file) that contain string (eg, DIR | FIND BAS). FIND accepts up to 8 arguments that aren’t switches, including string if it isn’t quoted (more displays Syntax error); each can match any number of files.

string needs quotes only if it contains spaces or starts with the switch character (eg, FIND "BASIC-DOS 2" *.TXT); without quotes, it’s the first argument that isn’t a switch. It can also be a string variable, whose value is used, even if it contains spaces (eg, S$ = "BASIC-DOS 2" and then FIND S$ *.TXT; see Command Arguments).

• /C displays only the number of lines
• /I ignores case
• /N puts each line’s number in front of it (eg, [3])
• /R treats string as a regular expression (eg, DIR | FIND /R "^[A-M]" displays the lines that start with A through M)
• /V displays the lines that do not contain string

When files are specified, the lines from each file follow a blank line and a line containing its name, and with /C, the name is followed by the file’s count:

FIND /IN T NAMES.TXT

---------- NAMES.TXT
[2]Two
[3]Two
[4]three
FIND /C T NAMES.TXT

---------- NAMES.TXT: 2

ERRORLEVEL is set to 0 if any lines were displayed (or counted), 1 if none, and 2 if a switch isn’t valid or string is missing (Syntax error), the regular expression is invalid (Invalid expression), or a file couldn’t be opened (eg, Unable to find X.TXT).

Source: find.asm

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