Searching for a Character String

Access

To find a character string in the text in the active window, you must either:

Select the Find option in the Help Editor's Edit menu.
Select the Find option in the 4GL Editor's Edit menu.
Click on the icon in the 4GL Editor's tool bar.

This dialog box is used to find a character string in the active document (source or help text), starting at the cursor's current position.

If necessary, any sources in the 4GL Editor that contain blocks will be expanded in order to find any occurrences.

The search is performed in a loop: if either end of the document is reached, the search will continue in the same direction from the other end.

The search criteria will be retained for the options:

Continue search in the Help Editor's Edit menu.
Find next and Find previous in the 4GL Editor's Edit menu.

Data entry

Find what

Character string to be found.

If a block of text was selected in the active document (source or help text) when the dialog box was opened, it will appear in this field.

Default setting: the most recent search character string.

The associated button lets you select a number of common elements found in regular expressions.

Click here to display the list..

Expression	Description
Any character	Represents any single character (.)
Character range	Enters a range of possible characters ([]) Example: [A-Z]
Start of line	Locks the expression at the start of the line (^) Valid only at the start of an expression.
End of line	Locks the expression at the end of the line ($) Valid only at the end of an expression.
Stored subexpression	Subexpression that is stored for the Find and Replace function (())
Non-stored subexpression	Subexpression that is not stored (())
Or	Logical OR (\|) Example: num_bin_2\|num_bin_4
Zero, one or more occurrences	Repeats the expression zero, one or more times (*)
One or more occurrences	Repeats the expression at least once (+)
Quantifier	Repeats the expression in a quantified manner (x times, or from x to y times ({}) Example: {2,5} expression repeated between 2 and 5 times.
	* equivalent to {0,} + equivalent to {1,}
Space	Represents spacing characters (\s)
ID character	Represents a character that can be part of an identifier (for Adelia, except for EBCDIC characters) (\w).
Decimal digit	Represents a digit (\d). Equivalent to [0-9]

Lists

Search in

List used to define the search scope.

The possible options are:

Active document	The search is performed on the current document.
All documents	The search is performed on all documents currently open in the editor.
Active block	The search is performed only on the current block (procedure, window, etc.). This option is only available if the current document is a structured source.

Check boxes

Match whole word only

Checked	Only those occurrences which exactly match the character string will be found (the search will not return parts of words).
Unchecked	All occurrences containing the character string will be found.

Match case

Checked	The search will concern the character string as it has been typed in, with exactly the same use of upper and lower case.
Unchecked	The search will not distinguish between upper and lower case characters.

Regular expression

Checked	The input string is interpreted as a regular expression.
Unchecked	The search is performed on the text in the input string.

Search in all open documents

Checked	The search will concern all documents that are open in the editor.
Unchecked	The search is only performed in the active document in the editor.

Radio buttons

Up

Instructs the system to search toward the top of the document, starting from the current cursor position. When the start of the document is reached, the search will continue from the end of the document.

Down

Instructs the system to search toward the bottom of the document, starting from the current cursor position. When the end of the document is reached, the search will continue from the start of the document.

Buttons

Cancel

Closes the dialog box without running the search procedure.

Keyboard shortcut: Esc.

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