Previous Topic: LocateNext Topic: Change Confirmation


Find/Change

Use the Find/Change command in the editor to find records that contain specified character strings and to change one specified string to another. You can use the editor normally while the Find/Change dialog is open.

Follow these steps:

  1. Right-click anywhere in the editor, click Data Set-level Operations, Find/Change.

    The Find/Change dialog displays.

  2. Specify the find and change details:
    Find

    Specifies the string to find

    Change to

    Specifies the string with which you want the find string replaced

    Note: If the Change to and Find fields are not the same length, the record length is corrected by be removing characters or adding pad characters to the end of the record. The Change Confirmation message displays with more information about correcting the length of the changed record.

    Type

    Specifies the data type of the find string

    Length

    Specifies the length of the find string

    Note: You must complete the Length field if you selected Packed decimal as the data type. Otherwise this field is not active.

  3. Select the column range information:
    Start column

    Specifies the first, or leftmost, column in which to search

    End column

    Specifies the last, or rightmost, column in which to search

    Note: If the end column is not also specified, the specified string must begin the in the start column.

    Note: If no column limits are specified, all records are searched for the Find string.

  4. Select the occurrence options:
    Next

    Start from the current position in the file and locate the next occurrence of the specified string

    Previous

    Start from the current position in the file and locate the previous occurrence of the specified string

    First

    Start at the beginning of the file and locate the first occurrence of the specified string

    Last

    Start at the end of the file and locate the last occurrence of the specified string

  5. Select the location options that define where the string can occur in the context of other characters in a record:
    Character

    Match strings anywhere in a word

    Word

    Match only complete words

    Prefix

    Match only strings at the beginning of words

    Suffix

    Match only strings at the end of words

  6. Specify the search options that define where to perform the search:
    All lines

    Search in all lines

    Excluded

    Search only in excluded lines

    Nonexcluded lines

    Search only in lines that are not excluded

    Find limit

    Specifies the number of records to include in the search

  7. Click one of the following buttons:
    Find

    Runs the find command until the specified conditions are met once.

    Note: The result is highlighted in the editor in Character mode but not in single-record format.

    Find all

    Runs the find command until all instances that meet the specified conditions are met.

    Note: The result is highlighted in the editor in Character mode but not in single-record format.

    Change

    Runs the change command until one change is made according to the specified conditions

    Note: This button activates when you specify a value in the Change to field.

    Change all

    Runs the change command until all changes are made according to the specified conditions

    Note: This button activates when you specify a value in the Change to field.

    A message displays a summary of the find or change results.

    Note: If the Find and Change to values are a different length, the Change Confirmation dialog displays showing information about correcting the record length. Click OK to exit the Change Confirmation message. For more information about correcting the record length, see Change Confirmation.

    Use the editor scroll bar to view all the results.

  8. Click Close.

    The Find/Change dialog closes. The find or change results remain highlighted until you run a find or change command again or until you reset the processing option. For more information, see Reset.

More information:

Data Set-level Operations

Change Confirmation

Exclude

Flip

Locate

Reset