findstr DOS Command's multiple string argument

Question

findstr /v "black"  File1.txt

Above DOS command will display content of 'File1.txt' which are not matching string "black".

How to modify this command , if I need to filter words "black" and "white" ?

Solution 1

How do I filter words "black" and "white"?

The following command will display all lines containing "black" NOR "white":

findstr /v "black white" blackwhite.txt

The following command will display all lines containing "black" OR "white":

findstr "black white" blackwhite.txt

The following command will display all lines containing EXACTLY "black white":

findstr /c:"black white" blackwhite.txt

The following command will display all lines containing "black" AND "white":

findstr "white" blackwhite.txt | findstr "black"

Notes:

• When the search string contains multiple words, separated with spaces, then findstr will return lines that contain either word (OR).

• A literal search (/C:string) will reverse this behaviour and allow searching for a phrase or sentence. A literal search also allow searching for punctuation characters.

Example data file (blackwhite.txt):

red
black
white
blue
black white
black and white

Example output:

F:\test>findstr /v "black white" blackwhite.txt

red
blue

F:\test>findstr "black white" blackwhite.txt
black
white
black white
black and white

F:\test>findstr /c:"black white" blackwhite.txt
black white

F:\test>findstr "white" blackwhite.txt | findstr "black"
black white
black and white

---

Further Reading

• An A-Z Index of the Windows CMD command line - An excellent reference for all things Windows cmd line related.
• findstr - Search for strings in files.

Solution 2

If you need to display all lines with the words "black" or "white" then get rid of the /v in your command.

Try: findstr white File1.txt or findstr black File1.txt or findstr "black white" File1.txt

The /V operand will print all lines that DO NOT contain your search string.

Type findstr /? for more info on how to use findstr.

Comments

[Michel de Ruiter]

The findstr tool is not part of MS-DOS. It comes with Windows (XP+?). I think you mean 'command line tool' instead of 'DOS command'.

[barlop]

very interesting.. I guess this would be searching for white AND black findstr "white" File2.txt | findstr "black"

[barlop]

well, since we have NOR, So there is still a permutation we could consider missing. NAND. Another one we could consider missing, is XOR

[DavidPostill]

@barlop I can't figure out how to do NAND or XOR :/ I know what the output should be but how to get there ...

[barlop]

maybe there isn't a nice quick way, it'd probably be a batch file checking errorlevel probably better to use some other tool if doing that, looks like grep can't,. But awk can do quite a bit or of course perl unix.stackexchange.com/questions/177513/…

[barlop]

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

[Community]

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