Handling long strings in FIND

You can use the FIND command to specify a string that is up to 100 characters long. However, when you are dealing with long strings, you might find that you cannot fit the whole FIND command (including other parameters) on the Command line. To overcome this problem, do one of the following to display an Extended Command Entry pop-up panel (see Extended Command Entry pop-up panel for the FIND command):

Enter FX (for Find Extended)
Enter the FIND primary command (or one of its abbreviations, such as F) with no parameters.

The Extended Command Entry pop-up panel contains five lines (each 50 characters long) that you use to enter all the FIND command parameters (but not the actual keyword FIND or any of its abbreviations). File Manager treats the five lines on the pop-up panel as contiguous, allowing you to specify a long search string and any other parameters, using up to 250 characters in total.

Note: You can continue a string (or any other parameter) from the last position on one line of the pop-up panel to the first position of the next line. However, this does not mean that you need to completely fill a line before using the next line. For example, you can specify the search string on the first of the five lines and the other parameters on the next line. If you are not specifying a quoted string and you do not use all of a line, File Manager treats the unused part of the line as a single space. When you specify a string with quotation marks, any trailing blanks and any leading blanks in the next line are retained.

Extended Command Entry pop-up panel for the FIND command shows the Extended Command Entry pop-up panel for the FIND command. This example searches for all occurrences of the string “dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane” in field #3 for non-excluded records only.

Figure 1. Extended Command Entry pop-up panel for the FIND command

  Process   Options   Help
 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 Edit           USERID.FMDATA(NEWDATA1)                          Rec 0 of 40
                                                                     Format TABL
   ┌───────────────────── Extended Command Entry ──────────────────────┐
   │                                                                   │
   │ Complete typing the FIND command and press Enter.                 │
   │                                                                   │ ->
 0 │ FIND    ===> dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane                      │
 0 │         ===> all #3 nx                                            │
 0 │         ===>                                                      │
 0 │         ===>                                                      │
 0 │         ===>                                                      │
 0 │                                                                   │
 0 │                                                                   │
 0 │  F1=Help    F2=Split   F3=Exit    F9=Swap   F12=Cancel            │
 0 └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
 000009 000140  ammonium hydroxide solution
 000010 000150  dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane
 000011 ****  End of data  ****

 Command ===> fx                                                    Scroll 0001
  F1=Help      F2=Zoom      F3=Exit      F4=CRetriev  F5=RFind     F6=RChange
  F7=Up        F8=Down      F9=Swap     F10=Left     F11=Right    F12=Cancel