Category : Word Processors
Archive   : FINDAND.ZIP
Filename : FINDAND.DOC

FindAND

Version 1.00

a product of
Elson Systems Consulting

(C) 1991 by Jeremy Elson


Overview
--------
FindAND is a utility which searches for combinations of strings within
text files. Although FindAND works on any text file, the inspiration for
writing it came from the Programmer's Corner's ALLFILES.LST file. FindAND
works just like WhereIs, the main difference being that you can use FindAND
offline, without being timed. On my 386, FindAND searches though the 1 1/4
meg Programmers Corner ALLFILES.LST faster than DOS' FIND could, even
though FindAND, unlike FIND, is able to do non-case-sensitive and logical
AND searches.


Usage
-----
FindAND works completely from the command-line. The format is:

FindAND File_To_Search Search_String_1 [Search_String_2 . . .]

You must enter at least two command-line parameters. The first is the
filename you want to search. The second is the string you want to search
for in the file. Next, you can enter up to 10 other strings to search for
as other command-line parameters.
FindAND will then show you all lines in the specified text file which
contain all of the specified search strings on the same line. The output
can be redirected to a file, printer, or any of your other friendly
neighborhood DOS devices using DOS' standard redirection technique (i.e.
"findand allfiles.lst kermit source>prn").


FindAND and ALLFILES.LST
------------------------
As mentioned previously, FindAND was originally designed to work with
ALLFILES.LST on The Programmer's Corner (or any other BBS which outputs
file lists in a similar way). Although each file description appears to
take several lines, there is no carriage return until the very end of the
last line. Therefore, FindAND works just like WhereIs. For example, if
you type "findand allfiles.lst kermit source", FindAND will show you all
file descriptions of Kermit programs which include source code.
Note that this only works on file lists which have carriage returns
at the end of the entire file description, not at the end of each screen
line. If a file's description is broken up by CRs, it will not work
correctly because it will treat each line of the description as a separate
unit.
It takes less than 10 seconds to search the 1 1/4+ meg ALLFILES.LST
on my 386, but it can take up to a minute on slower computers since most
of the processing is done in memory rather than right from disk (thanks to
Turbo Pascal's high quality BlockRead procedure).
The important difference between WhereIs and FindAND, however, is that
you can download ALLFILES.LST for free, then search through the files with
FindAND at your leisure, without being charged.


Other Miscellaneous Stuff You
Probably Don't Care About
-----------------------------
This program was written by Jeremy Elson on 5/26/91 using Borland's
Turbo Pascal 6.0 (tm). Turbo Pascal is a high-quality programming
language, and its environment is a joy to use.
FindAND is copyrighted but free. Distribute it if you want to. There
may be other versions in the future with some other stuff (i.e. option to
make the search case-sensitive so it goes faster) but right now it's short
and simple, and I like that.
If you have any feedback, suggestions, comments, jokes, etc. address
them to Jeremy Elson via The Programmer's Corner BBS (301-530-1180), or
Prodigy (GBMK41C). Sorry, I'm not on CompuServe or any other big names,
but I will be amazed if this program ever gets out of the area code anyway.


Pleasant Message
----------------
Have a nice day.

Fini.