Using wildcards in a search
When you select Regular Expression in the Find & Replace Content window, you activate wildcard searching. GoLive makes wildcard searching easier by allowing you to use editable wildcard patterns from the Regular Expressions pop-up menu in the Find & Replace Content window. Wildcard patterns appear below the separator line in the search history menu.
To use wildcards in a search: - In the In Current Document or In Multiple Files tab of the Find & Replace Content window, choose a wildcard pattern from the Regular Expression pop-up menu at the top of the window or type a search string in the Find text box. (See the wildcard search options in the following table.)
- Select Regular Expression.
- Click Find.
Use these guidelines when wildcard searching: - Characters that are used to specify wildcard options, such as "?", "\", "[", and "]", must be preceded by a backslash. For example, "\?" finds any question mark.
- The caret serves as a wildcard character only when it precedes a range of characters, as in "[^A-Z]".
- The dash does not act as a wildcard character if it precedes a range of characters, as in "[-ABC]" or "[^-ABC]". At any other location, it acts as a wildcard character indicating a "from...to" relationship.
The following table lists available wildcard search options: Wildcard Option | Action |
---|
Wildcards for Single Characters | . | Finds any single character. | [] | Finds any one of the characters in square brackets. For example: "[0123456789]" finds any digit. "[a-zA-Z]" finds any alphabetical character. | Finds any one character in a range enclosed in square brackets. For example: "[0-9]" finds any digit. | [^] | Finds any character other than the characters following the caret symbol (^) in the brackets. For example: "[^ab]" finds any character, except for "a" and "b" | \d (or [0-9]) | Finds any digit. | \D (or [^0-9]) | Finds any character other than a digit. | \w (or [a-zA-Z]) | Finds any character. | [a-zA-Z]+ | Finds any word. | \W (or [^a-zA-Z]) | Finds any character other than alphabetical characters. | \s (or [SPACE+\t]) | Finds any white space (SPACE = space key). | \S | Finds any character other than a white space. | \r | Finds any line break (in HTML source code). | \t | Finds any tab character, such as indentations in HTML source code. | \x00 - \xff | Finds any character, as identified by its ASCII value. For example: "\X43" finds "C" | Quantifiers | ? | The question mark makes the preceding character or string (enclosed in parentheses) optional. For example: "(Adobe )?GoLive" finds "GoLive" and "Adobe GoLive". | + | The plus sign finds one or more occurrences of the preceding character or search string in a row. For example: "ba+" finds "ba", "baa", "baaa", etc. | * | The star is equivalent to a "?" and a "+", and can result in a "not found" message if no occurrences are found. The character preceding the "*" is optional. For example: "ba*" finds "b", "ba", "baa", etc. | Other Search String Modifiers | | | The vertical bar serves as a separator for alternative search strings. For example: "Adobe|GoLive|4.0" finds "Adobe", "GoLive", and "4.0". | () | Parentheses enclose a search string that serves as a definition for quantifiers. For more information, see the description of "?" above. | ^ | In source mode, the caret finds the start of a line. In the Layout Editor, it finds the beginning of a paragraph. | $ | In source mode, the dollar sign finds the end of a line. In the Layout Editor, it finds the end of a paragraph. |
Search String | Finds |
---|
Adobe|GoLive | "Adobe" or "GoLive" | m(i|a)ll | "mill" or "mall" | Adobe(GoLive)? | "GoLive" if the latter exists, else "Adobe" | </?HTML> | "<HTML>" and "</HTML>" | Ye+s | The word "Yes", containing any number of successive "e" characters, such as "Yes", "Yees", "Yeees", etc. | Michael J[a-z]* | Any string beginning with "Michael J", followed by any number of lowercase letters, such as "Michael Jones", "Michael Jamrosy", and "Michael Jordan" | <H[1-6]> | HTML headings H1 through H6, including "H1", "H2", "H3", etc. | <[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9]*> | Any start tag that has no attributes, such as "<P>", "<b>", "<H2>", "<ImaGe>" | <[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9]*[^>]*> | Any start tag, including those with attributes, such as "<image width=20>" |
|