PsL Monthly 1994 January

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ PsL Monthly 1994 January / PSL Monthly Shareware CD-ROM (Public Software Library) (January 1994).iso / games / dos / game_mgt / baskbal.com / SPFIND.DOC < prev

Wrap

Text File | 1988-01-02 | 15.5 KB | 376 lines

SPFIND, a quick find, Copyright 1987 by Stan Peters 4276-C Wilkie Way, Palo Alto 94306 OVERVIEW. This program works much like other FIND or GREP programs that you may have used. Enter the program name at the DOS prompt, followed by a string you want to find, and then the file specification. Only with this program, you can enter several strings before the file name. It will search for all of them on the same pass over the file. You can also specify that you want to see lines surrounding the match. Maybe you want a match only if all the search strings are on the line. SPFIND will do that. Maybe you want a match only if all of a set of words are within a few lines of each other. SPFIND will do that. Maybe you want to know which of a set of documents contain all the words you specify. The program will do that. Optionally, the program will add line numbers to the output which can be in "FIND" format or "GREP" format. Some search programs allow the use of the DOS wildcard characters * and ?. Here, the . stands for the ? (any character). The * can be done using an 'and' search, e.g.: '-a first second' approximates 'first*second'. The program works best on ASCII files, but will work on many text type files. Word processor documents, and probably some database files. The search is quick. Not as fast as Chris Dunfords FGREP, but three or more times faster than the GREP's I have seen. Entering several strings slows SPFIND very little. Whats New with SPFND4: | Bug fixed: SPFND3 had a life span of about 8 hours, there was | a bug, the T option wasn't working. | | Bug fixed: When -d (document) is on, search switches were not | reset with next file, resulting in false matches. | | -t option added, displays results on screen even when output is | is also redirected. | | -- More --, a pause added at page breaks. | | The or symbol for compound searches is now / , not | , reducing | the need for double quotes. | Files in the distribuition: SPF.EXE The program SPFIND.DOC Program documentation. SPF.DAT A small data file used to illustrate usage of the program. Using the Program; Usage: spf [-options] string [string].... filename Filename may contain ? and *, it may have a path prefix You may have 1 to 15 strings. A period in the string(s) matches any character. Entering SPF on the command line, without any parameters will give a summary of the options. Options must start with a '-'. Options may be combined in a single term or input individually: spf -w -a -15b is identical to: spf -wa15b. These options are available: a - 'and', all must be present. All the strings on the command line must be present. See below for a discussion of compound searches - you can use the / symbol to get and/or combinations. b - also search binary files. Binary files are normally skipped in the search. You usually don't want to search executeable and .ARC files. Internally, SPFIND considers a file with 20 characters in the first 512 bytes that are less than a hex 9 to identify a file as 'binary'. SPFIND works (slowly) on these files. c - case sensitive search. The default is to ignore case (upper/lower) for letters. Use this option to restrict your output. d - Span entire document, if necessary. This option is particularly useful if you want to scan many documents for the presence of a set of words. When the search criteria has been met, the last occurance of each string will be output and SPFIND will skip to the next file. f - stop after first find. If you just want to know whether the strings are present in the file(s), use this option. SPFIND will show the last line in the file that satisfys the search criteria for each string on the command line. h - strip hi (8) bits. Enter this option if you want the hi bit stripped before comparison and output. Use this option if you are scanning word processor documents (Wordstar, and perhaps others). l - show line numbers. Use this to show line numbers on each output line. For a "normal" ASCII file this should agree with the lines in your document. SPFIND advances this count when it detects a CRLF, CR alone, or LF alone. Or when 100 characters have passed without any of the above. t - send output to both the screen and a redirected ( > ) file. You can capture the results to a file AND see the action on the screen. u - Unix (grep) style output. Unix 'grep' style lines will be outputted if you use this option. Each output line will be prefixed with the name of the file containing the string. The messages for file being searched, ie "+- filename>" will not appear. Nor will the "hex file skipped" message appear. w - match only if a word. A string will be considered a match only if the preceding and following positions does not contain an alpha or numeric character. For scanning programs, this can be useful to restrict output, eg "-w eof" will not output "sizeof". a number (from 2 thru 15) If you enter a number SPFIND will to two things: It will search for a match within a span of lines, that is, all arguments need not occur on the same line. When it finds a match, SPFIND will show it centered in the number of lines you have specified. The set of lines will be follow by this line: "+-+. See below for examples. A SUMMARY of these options will be displayed on the screen if you enter SPF with no parameters. I have never seen a program that uses a span of lines like this and, in testing it, I have found the output rather odd at times. But the program was operating correctly. So I have included a small file of data (SPF.DAT) so that you can "play" with multi-line "and" conditions and get a feel for how it works on a simple set of data. The file contains 20 lines: SPFIND demo data w1 w2 . . w18 w19 I suggest you try these: Enter: Comment: spf w1 spf.dat - 10 lines output spf -w w1 spf.dat - 1 line output spf -w2 w1 spf.dat - 2 lines output, one after spf -w3 w1 spf.dat - 3 lines output, before and after spf -a2 w1 w2 spf.dat - 2 lines output spf -a5 w4 w6 spf.dat - 5 lines output If you want a compound search using a mixed and/or criteria, use the / symbol (see examples below). Enter the -a for an "and" search followed by strings that must be there. Then the or conditions, with the terms separated by the /. Search for w4 and either w5 or w6: spf -a5 w4 w5/w6 spf.dat - 5 lines output Another example. Search for w7 and either w1 or w5: spf -a5 w7 w1/w5 spf.dat - 8 lines output This time we have two sets that match: the first is for w5 and w7, the second is for w7 and w1(1). Notice that there are only three lines printed in the second set. That is because two of its lines have been printed in the set above. If you want to search for the /, enter the / twice, the double slash (//) indicates to SPFIND that this is not an "or". So if you want to search for the date 10/12/85, enter 10//12//85. Search for /// ? Enter each twice - //////. Earlier versions of SPFIND used double quotes and the vertical bar. But I find my typing errors go up when I enter upper case, especially for non-alpha keys. There are a few instances where you will have to use double quotes to define the strings, one being for blanks within the strings. The other is for those keys that DOS captures: <, >, and | . Enter "age < 40", not: age < 40 . Other examples: spf -u w1 spf.dat - 10 lines output, Unix style spf -ad w2 w7 w13 spf.dat - 3 lines output, and quit searching spf w1 spf.* - DOS wildcards OK in file name. Binary files skipped unless you specify -b If you are a user of DISK NAVIGATOR (another of my shareware products) you may be interested in these macros to speed your work: phon spf -a4f address.fil Key in 'phon', press ENTER, key in first and last name, and press F4. doc spf -wad ^DP\*.* Key in 'doc', press ENTER, key in a set of words, and press F4. All documents in the indicated directory that contain the set of words will be shown. The above concepts can also be implemented with .BAT files. Disk Navigator is on Compuserve, PC-Sig and many other places as DNAV13.ARC. WARRANTY. SPFIND IS DISTRIBUITED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. THE USER IS ADVISED TO TEST THE PACKAGE BEFORE RELYING ON IT. THE USER MUST ASSUME FULL RISK AS TO THE RESULTS AND PERFORMANCE OF USING THE PACKAGE. ANY LIABILITY OF THE AUTHOR WILL BE LIMITED EXCLUSIVELY TO PRODUCT REPLACEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES ARISING FROM THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS PACKAGE. LICENSE. SPFIND is a copyrighted software that is being distributed as shareware. It is NOT in the public domain. By using or distributing this package, you agree to the conditions presented here. You may use the SPFIND for your own personal use. If you find it useful, you are requested to pay a Registration fee of $10. You may use the program on multiple machines. Where there is the potential for use on multiple machines at the same time, pay for additional copies. If you are using SPFIND in a commercial, professional, educational, or governmental organization, you are granted a limited license, valid for thirty days, to use this package for evaluation purposes; if you continue to use this package, you must pay the registration fee. Operators of bulletin board systems that offer public domain programs are exempted from payment. HOW TO PAY. The price has been made attractive to encourage users of the program to send payment. For each copy in use send: 5 or more 20 or more All users: $10 $6 $4 Registered users will be notified by letter of updates to the program. Add $6 if you wish to receive a disk with the latest version. Please indicate the version you are using so I can send a refund if you are current. The idea of shareware with its low cost distribution of quality programs is an American Treasure. Individuals with good ideas can afford to implement them. The authors are talented people that may forego salary to implement their ideas. They are making a bet that their efforts will be accepted and that users will respond. A survey has indicated that a very low percentage of users supply support. This is no way to keep the concept alive! If SPFIND does not fit your needs, please stop and think about what shareware packages you do find useful. Support those that you use regularly. Send remittance to: Stan Peters 4276-C Wilke Way Palo Alto, Ca. 94306 I will check regularly for messages to me on SPFIND or DISK NAVIGATOR on: Compuserve, my id: 76525,1601 San Francisco area BBS's (Stan Peters); PDSE San Mateo: 415 571 6911 PDSE Sunnyvale: 408 735 7190 DISTRIBUTION. You may freely copy this program for friends so long as the three files are included unmodified. Non-profit user groups and bulletin boards may also include it in their libraries. For-profit organizations may distribute it provided there is a PROMINENT statement urging users to support the user supported concept. This should be in a brief index type (READ.ME?) file that the user accesses to discover the contents of the disk. If in doubt, write me, showing me how you get the point across to the purchaser. In no case may the cost per disk exceed $6.50. REGISTRATION AND ORDER FORM Stan Peters 4276-C Wilkie Way Palo Alto, Ca. 94306 --------------------------------------------------------------- PRICE PRICE PRODUCT QTY EACH EXTENDED ----------------------------- --- ----- -------- SPFIND ___ $10.00 $_______ For Registered users: Disk with current version ___ $6.00 $_______ Purchase Order (not prepaid) $5.00 $ ------- SUBTOTAL $_______ California orders, add sales tax (6%) $ ------- TOTAL $ ------- Name: _________________________________Phone:________________ Address:_____________________________________________________ Address: ____________________________________________________ City, State, Zip: ___________________________________________ Comments: