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stringfindstr

Searching for a list of strings using the "findstr" command

Is it possible to search for a list of strings (100+), for example in a text file and using a command such as findstr to identify which files contain any of the strings? Or is there a better alternative (on Windows) ?

Solution

  • Probably, from the findstr help I found:

    /G:file Gets search strings from the specified file(/ stands for console).

    and

    /S Searches for matching files in the current directory and all subdirectories.

    so:

    C:\Temp>copy con strings.txt
test
test1
test2
^Z
    1 file(s) copied.

    I created (with copy con brings me back) 3 files test.txt test1.txt and test2.txt and placed the strings we have from strings.txt into the respective files and then ran this command:

    C:\Temp>findstr /S /G:strings.txt *.txt
strings.txt:test
strings.txt:test1
strings.txt:test2
test.txt:test
test1.txt:test1
test2.txt:test2

    It indeed found them, and it even found all three from the source file strings.txt.