Find/Search for a file

[LordHog]

Hello,

In the File Tree View (Explorer tab) there are right-click option to search for a string within files. Is there a way to search for a particular file name within this context? Most of the search/find facilities I have seen (or encountered is a better word) are to search for strings within a file(s). I looked through the list of toolbar buttons so I might add this command, but I didn't find anything under "Find ..." or "Search ..." in the list of toolbar buttons I could add. Any ideas what this find/search command is called and how to invoke it?

Thanks,
Mark

[bulgrien]

One option:

In the "Find in files" dialog, click [Advanced], enable Perl Regular Expressions, then set your search criteria to:

(?s)(.*)

Put your semicolon-delimited list of file masks in the "In Files/Types" text box.
Optionally, list "File names/extensions to ignore in search" at the bottom of the dialog.

[Mofi]

Well, UltraEdit is a text editor and not a file manager. Therefore the find features are designed for searching for text and not for files. If you want to search for files, use your favorite file manager, i. e. Windows Explorer if you don't have something better. You can drag and drop the found files into the UltraEdit window for opening them.

As bulgrien wrote, you can use also the Find in Files feature of UltraEdit to find files. If you only want to find files and not a string in files, you can let the Find What field completely empty and don't need any other option except Search Subdirectories. The option Results to Edit Window can be used to control where the list of found files should be printed to: to the output window or to a new document window. Unfortunately the option Open matching files introduced with UE v17.20 does not work for this special find for files. But the found files can be opened with a double click on the file name in the output window or with right clicking on the file name in the document window.

But there is one more method to open quickly 1 or more files using a file name specifiation and let UltraEdit search in a directory or a directory tree for file names matching the file name specification: File - Quick Open, best used with a hotkey like Ctrl+Q. If you enter for example Dlg*.cpp as Filename, UltraEdit will open all files starting with Dlg and having cpp as file extension found in the directory defined under Path and its subdirectories, if option Open all matching files from subdirectories is also checked.

Last for completness, the standard File - Open dialog offers also the option to filter the list of files of a directory for quicker finding the files of interest. Just enter in the file name field a file specification with a wildchard character and hit key RETURN. The file names displayed is reduced to the files with a name matching the just entered file name specification and this filter is active as long as you have the dialog open and no file(s) is(are) selected for opening.

[LordHog]

Mofi,

Thanks, again (you have helped me many of times), but even though UltraEdit is a text editor and it primary function is to edit files it should be able to search for files. The application is a text editor, so if I can't search for a file how can I edit it (rhetorical question). I will send IDM an enhancement request and see if they can add the action to the program.

Thanks, (again),
Mark

[bulgrien]

Another thing to note is that the latest verson of UltraCompare Professional now has a "Duplicate File Finder" which serves quite well at finding files (since that is what it was designed to do). Since UC and UE are integrated, you can open the returned files in UltraEdit from UltraCompare. Give it a try and see what you think. Since the duplicate file finder is pretty much a stand-alone tool/add-on in UltraCompare, I've already suggested to IDM that the Duplicate File Finder could just as easily be built into UE to provide users with file search capability there as well. If you like the implementation in UC, you could request it in UE as well.

[bulgrien]

But there is one more method to open quickly 1 or more files using a file name specifiation... File - Quick Open

I would have suggested Quick Open as well but, for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to consistently/reliably change/set the root folder in the Quick Open dialog so that I can use include sub-folders in my Quick Open file search. There is certainly room for improvement in the Quick Open functionality as it exists in the product today.

[Mofi]

The quick open dialog is designed to use the path of the active file by default as initial path. But the path as displayed in the dialog is used only when entering just a file name with or without wildcards, or when entering a file name with relative path. But when entering in Filename field an absolute path and a file name specification, the path is ignored. For example entering C:\*.txt with option Open all matching files from subdirectories enabled results in opening all files with extension TXT in any directory on drive C: independent of the path displayed in the dialog.