Search inside multiple text files

[gridiron123]

I've did a bit of googling and haven't came up with anything. What I need is some kind of a program where I can set the target, and make it search through the contents of all the text files. Any such kind of animal out there? If there is anyway to make it easier searching through 3,500+ text files to find one thing then opening them one at a time, I'd sure like to do it. Thanks

 

[Allio]

Indeed there is. I assume you're on Windows or you'd already know about this - a windows port of grep.

Looks complicated, but it's not, really. Just stick grep.exe somewhere in your path (probably C:\Windows) and open a command line in the folder where the files are.

Usage: grep -i "the string you want to search for" *.*

-i makes the search case insensitive. You can also obviously specity one/some files instead of all by replacing *.* with a filename or a different wildcard filter.

Edit: Of course, if the files are in subdirectories, use -S like it's demonstrated on the site.

 

[WannaFly]

Windows built-in search will do this for you. :/

 

[kamper]

Originally posted by: WannaFly
Windows built-in search will do this for you. :/

Windows built-in search blows for searching through files.

 

[gridiron123]

Sure enough, I just found that. Gee I'm a dunce. I will also download grep and try it too. Thanks.