How Do I Search by File Name?

[essiecab]

I have imported all of my files from Lightroom, but now I can't figure out how to search by file name. I name my files with certain code words and in LR I was able to make collections based on snippets of file names.

For instance, I have some files named xxxxxxx123, and others named xxxxxxx345. How do I find only those files with 123 in the name?

[Hert]

In the search bar type:

Code: Select all

123

and press enter.

If that gives too much results then use this to only search for file names that contain the text 123

Code: Select all

123@catitem.filename

[essiecab]

Okay, you can tell I'm new here: where is the search bar? I see where Dynamic Search is but how do I type anything in?

[Hert]

The search box in the the upper right corner of the application.

[sanphotgn]

Hi Hert,

I have a file name with the last characters: 45848.

When I enter 45848 in the search bar, the file does not appear.

Should it?

I tried this - 45848@catitem.filename - in the search bar and the file didn't appear. Tried other variations with other files and it didn't work.

Several of my files have F5D somewhere in the file name, but not at the beginning. If I enter F5D in the search bar, no files appear. If I enter the beginning characters of these files, I see a list appear with a header Image Reference and the list of file names. It appears the search works if you enter beginning characters of what you are trying to find. At least here. Maybe I am doing something wrong.

This finds the F5D files if entered like this: GN2012F5D.

This does not find the F5D files if entered like this: F5D.

Are wildcards available in the search bar?

Thanks.

Kevin

[David Grundy]

Interesting ... a contrasting data point:
if I enter characters from the middle of a filename, I DO find the files.

eg 00454 finds 20100809_004541_0070.DNG and one other file which has 00454 as a substring in one of the xmp fields.
and searching for 00454@catitem.filename finds only that one file 20100809_004541_0070.DNG

eg 0454 finds 14 items, for some of which 0454 is the last 4 digits of the filename.
and searching for 0454@catitem.filename finds 12 files (ie excludes those where the string was somewhere other than in the filename

... David

[jstartin]

@ sanphotgn and David

My experience seems to be that the character just before a "midstring" searched for is important. For example searching for "123" finds filenames containing "-123" and "_123" but not "0123". I haven't got to grips with all the details. Question to Hert is, is this by design or is it not what you intend?

[Hert]

@kevin; if you're using a converted IDI database then make sure you also ran the script to rebuild search data. I believe it is in the instructions.

@Jim; The rules followed are those of standard Free Text Search

[jstartin]

@Jim; The rules followed are those of standard Free Text Search

Unfortunately I don't know what the rules of standard Free Text Search are, and googling doesn't lead me to anything definitive. All I have to go on is my experiments. On this basis:

@essiecab "For instance, I have some files named xxxxxxx123, and others named xxxxxxx345. How do I find only those files with 123 in the name?"
If the last "x" is alphanumeric, you can't.

@Kevin. It behaves the same for me as it does for you, and I am not using a converted IDI database.

@David Grundy. I think the "_" characters in your filenames make all the difference.

[Hert]

Free Text Search searches for tokens in a string. A token is typically separated by a space or other special characters (like the dash or underscore). You can't use FTS to search for text within a token. So if you have a file named 000123.jpg then the tokens will be 000123 and JPG. That is what you can search for.

If you have a description in XMP that reads "this is my first photo" then you can search on each word but here too "hoto" will not give a search result, while "pho" will

[tstoddard]

Unfortunately I don't know what the rules of standard Free Text Search are

Just last week I was poking around in the PSU catalog database out of curiosity to try to understand it a little better. I noticed some sql in one of the tables that I was unfamiliar with so I looked it up. It was used to create a virtual table using the keyword "USING" and FTS3 (or FTS4 I don't recall which). I ended up finding this explanation:

http://www.sqlite.org/fts3.html

This explains to me what Hert just explained. Using this FTS (free text search) technology limits the application to searching on "tokens". The trade off is that if it much much faster than conventional text searches in regular database tables but you can't search for text within other text. This is explained in section 1, Introduction to FTS3 and FTS4 in the page referenced above.

I hope this helps you to better understand what is happening. Unfortunately, it doesn't offer any solution for accomplishing some of the things you might want to do. Knowing this, however, might influence how we rename our files or even how we spell or type some of the metadata we add to files. I hadn't really thought about it until now because I hadn't realized the significance of what I read last week.

[David Grundy]

OK! Now I understand why searching for "_000454" returns results including a file which has ":000454" as a string in an xmp field.

[sanphotgn]

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this post with examples and explanations. It has helped me understand what is going on. For the record my database wasn't a converted IDI database. I created a brand new database with PS and imported copies of photos to practice on.

I understand now why it wasn't finding F5D. In my file names F5D is "text within other text" (to borrow from Tom). My F5D file names typically look like this: GN2012F5D186456. No spaces or special characters before F5D.

[Steve01]

I am trialling Photo Supreme as I need a new software to take over from WhereIsIt that cataloged all my files, excel Msoft office, CAD, pdf as well as raster images psd jpg tif etc etc.

Hit a major problem and I see this thread hits upon it, I have 8Tb of data just internal as well as quite a few USB HDDs, CDs DVDs external HDDs many files being named with words abutting each other as is common practice to lessen file name length for visibility or keep within the character limit for addresses.

How do I search for a file called ThisFileIsNamedInThisWay.docx if I wish to find it using the word This

I am not alone in this practice, at work it was instilled into us all !

It wasnt a problem with AdvancedDiskcatalog or WhereIsIt using wildcard method *This* would work, as it would in WindowsExplorer, its standard practice to find files that way.

PSU though I am struggling with.

Steve01

[Hert]

I've created this script that allows you to search for any part of the file name;
http://repository.idimager.com/openreso ... 829E0E3524