Solved How to search for both spaces and quotes at the same time

[rkd7949]

I am looking for a file which contains a text string that looks like this:

VALUE - "X"

Because of the spaces on either side of the dash, I must enclose the string in quotes. But the string INCLUDES quotes, so that doesn't work! How do I find what I'm looking for? After extensive internet searching I found some suggestions and tried

contents:~VALUE - "X"
contents:~'VALUE - "X"'
'VALUE - "X"'

but those don't work, either. The best I can do is a search for

"VALUE - "

but that returns far too many files. The "X" is critical to my search. Help!

 

[DavidE]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I don't use Windows search, I use FileLocator Lite (free).
FileLocator Lite - Free File Searching Utility

If you're willing to use a different search program, this may help.
This program allows using the backslash as an escape character.

Searching for "Value - \"x\"" looks like it will find what you want.

hope this helps,
david

 

[rkd7949]

Thanks!

David, that's a great tool, thanks. Too bad Windows can't do it natively.

Unfortunately, it didn't help. Apparantly the string I'm looking for doesn't exist.