Windows batch script: Check for occurrence in files

Question

I need to write a windows batch script. Starting from a given directory, I need to check whether there is at least one occurrence of a given text in every file with a given file name.

E.g.: Starting with the directory C:\MyDir, I need to check this directory and all subdirectories for files with the name "MyFile.txt". Every file found must have at least one occurrence of the text "MyText".

What I have so far is this:

FOR /R C:\MyDir %%f in (MyFile.txt*) do ( FINDSTR /i /c:"MyText" %%~f )

Problems:

This would also match for files with the name MyFile.txtXXX
It does only print occurrences but does not "return" whether such an occurrency is found. This code is inside a batch script which must exit with an error, if there is one file without such an occurrence.

why MyFile.txt*? Can this be translated to "find all 'MyFile.txt' that does (not) contain 'MyText')" ? — Stephan
– Stephan, Commented Aug 10, 2016 at 14:03
Yes, that's the goal: "find all 'MyFile.txt' that do not contain 'MyText' — JohnQQ
– JohnQQ, Commented Aug 10, 2016 at 14:20

Stephan · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-10 14:53:03Z

1

findstr /v does not work like intended here, so you have to use a little trick: use findstr and use it's errorlevel to find "string not found":

for /r %%a in (myfile.txt) do findstr /i "MyText" %%a >nul && echo yes: %%a|| echo no:  %%a

for /r is recursive (search in subdirectories too) (use for instead of findstr /s to process each file one after the other to be able to check errorlevel for each single file instead of the complete findstr /s list)
&& works as "if previous command (findstr) was successful, then"
|| works as "if previous command (findstr) failed, then"

answered Aug 10, 2016 at 14:53

Stephan

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JosefZ · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-10 14:12:38Z

1

Read findstr /?: Searches for strings in files.

FINDSTR [/B] [/E] [/L] [/R] [/S] [/I] [/X] [/V] [/N] [/M] [/O] [/P] [/F:file]
        [/C:string] [/G:file] [/D:dir list] [/A:color attributes] [/OFF[LINE]]
        strings [[drive:][path]filename[ ...]]
  …
  /S         Searches for matching files in the current directory and all subdirectories.
  …

Next command should find and display all matches:

FINDSTR /S /i /c:"MyText" C:\MyDir\MyFile.txt

Next command should find all matches and display only (fully qualified) file names:

FINDSTR /M /S /i /c:"MyText" C:\MyDir\MyFile.txt

answered Aug 10, 2016 at 14:12

JosefZ

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1 Comment

JohnQQ Over a year ago

Thx for your answer. However, with this statement I have no possibility to find files without the given occurrence.

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