Searching files and folders

Searching helps a user to find an item without scanning long lists of files and folders. Search is visible in the banner only if the administrator has it enabled.

Information Console supports searching for files or folders within a folder. The scope of the search is limited to the selected folder and its subfolders. To search the entire Encyclopedia volume, the user must be at the top of the folder hierarchy.

A file and folder search displays files and folders that a user has the privilege to view.

How to use expressions in searches

Search expressions use special characters called operators to find files that match the condition in the expression. For example, Information Console supports using the special character, *, as a wildcard to indicate any variable number of characters before or after a string.

Table 2-2 lists the operators available to search for folders and files.

Table 2-2  Operators used to form search expressions 

Name	Operator	Usage
Asterisk	*	Match zero or any number of characters.
Brackets	[]	Matches any character in the set between the brackets
Caret	^	Match everything not in the bracket set
Comma	,	Combine search terms and expressions.
Exclamation	!	Match everything NOT equal to the search expression
Greater than	>	Match everything greater than or alphabetically after the value that follows the operator
Hyphen	-	Separates upper and lower limits of the search range
Less than	<	Match everything less than or alphabetically before the value that follows the operator
Number sign	#	Match any single ASCII numeric character [0–9]
Question mark	?	Match any one character

Searches include the file-name extension. For example, to search for a file called BIRTcharts5.rptdocument, the following expressions would find the file, in addition to finding other files with similar names:

BIRT*

BIRTcharts*

BIRTcharts5.rptdocument

BIRTcharts#*

BIRTcharts[3-6]*

*5*

The following expressions, however, would not find the file:

BIRTcharts5

*5

The file-name extension is included as part of the name when matching a search expression. The search for “BIRTcharts5” fails because there is not a file or folder named “BIRTcharts5”. The search for *5 fails because the end of the document name is “t” and not “5”.

Table 2-3 lists examples of search queries.

Table 2-3  Example search expressions

Expression	Search result
[A-E]*	Returns files starting with A, B, C, D, or E.
[AE]*	Returns files starting with A or E.
[^A-E]*	Returns files that do not start with A, B, C, D, or E.
?????	Returns files that have 5 characters in its name.
Model?2010*	Returns files whose name has a single character between Model and 2010.
*##*	Returns files containing 2 numeric characters anywhere in the name.
BIRT*	Returns files that start with BIRT.
>D	Returns files that have a name starting with D or a letter higher in the alphabet than D.
70 - 90	Returns files that have a numeric name from 70 up to 90.
A - C	Returns files starting with A, B, or C.
BIRT*, customer*	Returns files that begin with BIRT or customer.
*.rptdocument	Returns files that have the file-name extension .rptdocument.
*.rptdocument, *.rptdesign	Returns files that have the file-name extension .rptdocument. or .rptdesign.
*document	Returns files whose file-name extension ends with the letters “document”.

Searching for the expression “*document” finds files that finish with the word “document”, such as file.rptdocument and file.cubedocument. A file named April Report Document.rptdesign does not match the because the search includes the file-name extension as the end of the file name.

How to use special characters in searches

If a user wants to find a file name that includes one or more special characters, a backslash (\) must precede each special character in the search expression.

Table 2-4 lists the special characters that require a backslash before them when used in searches.

Table 2-4  Special characters in searches that require a backslash 

Character name	Symbol	Character name	Symbol
Ampersand	&	Hyphen	-
Asterisk	*	Less than sign	<
Backslash	\	Number sign	#
Close square bracket	]	Open square bracket	[
Comma	,	Pipe sign	|
Exclamation point	!	Question mark	?
Greater than sign	>	Single quotation mark	‘

For example, to search for a file where the title includes the characters “user#”, you must type the following search expression:

user\#

If you type user#, the search returns user names that begin with user and end with a number, such as user1, user2, and so on.

(c) Copyright Actuate Corporation 2011