Finding file names with spaces in them

[Charles Lavin]

Hi --

How can I find all files within a folder tree that have spaces in the file
name?

Thanks,
CL

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi --

How can I find all files within a folder tree that have spaces in the file
name?

Thanks,
CL

Try this:
- Start a Command Prompt
- Navigate to the folder you wish to examine
- Type this command:
dir /s /b | find " "
or, if you do NOT with to see folder names with embedded spaces:
dir /s /b /a-d | find " "

 

[Charles Lavin]

Hi --

That doesn't quite work. It picks up folders along the way with spaces in
the folder name, even if the files themselves do not. I tried adding an /a-d
switch to dir; the only way it works is if I remove the /s flag. I need to
find only those files within the folders that have spaces in the file names,
and I have thousands of folders to navigate. I don't want to have to do this
folder by folder.

I miss Unix ... Isn't there any tool in Windows that understands regular
expressions when dealing with files?

Thanks for the info,
CL

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Missing Unix is like telling your new wife that you miss
your divorced wife. She might reply that she's a package
deal: Either you take her as she is or you move on . . .

This batch file will do more or less what you want:

@echo off
for /r %%a in (.) do call :sub %%a
goto :eof

:sub
echo Scanning %*
dir "%*" /b 2>nul | find " "

 

[David Candy]

dir "* ?*.*" /a-d /s /b

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Very elegant. I don't quite understand why it works but I like it!


"David Candy" <.> wrote in message
dir "* ?*.*" /a-d /s /b

 

[Charles Lavin]

That worked! Although I'm not sure why ...

Why "* ?*" ? Isn't that "any number of characters, space, any one character,
any number of characters"? I had tried "* *" and that wasn't working. Are
the pattern-matching rules different in the newer generation Windows?

Thanks!

CL

"David Candy" <.> wrote in message
dir "* ?*.*" /a-d /s /b

 

[Charles Lavin]

In this case, I haven't divorced the first wife. The "new wife" is more like
a TV or stage wife -- someone I have to work with because that's what the
script calls for <g> ...

I actually took care of this last night from a Unix workstation, courtesy of
a remote filesystem mount and the Unix "find" command.

But David posted a dir call that looks like it does exactly what I need. But
I'm not sure why it works, unless pattern-matching rules for "?" have
changed in Windows XP.

Thanks for your help,
CL

 

[Plato]

That worked! Although I'm not sure why ...

Why "* ?*" ? Isn't that "any number of characters, space, any one character,
any number of characters"? I had tried "* *" and that wasn't working. Are
the pattern-matching rules different in the newer generation Windows?

As an aside, the ? wildcard will pick up spaces, AND, what "appear" to
be spaces. eg "non-dos" characters which windows or dos will show as a
space if it cant figure out what the actual character is.

 

[David Candy]

? is a character - it must exist. * is NONE or more characters. It may have worked without the ?, I didn't try because I learnt long ago to specify ?* which is one or more characters rather than none or more.

 

[Charles Lavin]

Aha!

Thanks!

As an aside, the ? wildcard will pick up spaces, AND, what "appear" to
be spaces. eg "non-dos" characters which windows or dos will show as a
space if it cant figure out what the actual character is.

 

[Charles Lavin]

Hi --

I'm still confused, though. As far as I remember, "?" is ANY character. The
pattern "* ?*" should pick up any name that has a space and at least one
more character following the space. The pattern "* *" should pick up any
name that has a space and zero or more characters. (Although that would be
an illegal file name...)

I wish Windows would "just do it" and incorporate regular expression
matching ...

Thanks again,
CL

"David Candy" <.> wrote in message
? is a character - it must exist. * is NONE or more characters. It may have
worked without the ?, I didn't try because I learnt long ago to specify ?*
which is one or more characters rather than none or more.

 

[David Candy]

It is regular expressions but modified to recognise Dos wildcards. That means I don't know the exact rules as there are implied wildcards from the Dos rules. An example is dir * which is read as *.* for Dos compatability reasons.

Also Dir can take multiple file patterns. Space is a delimiter here so quotes is important (see Dir in Help and Support).

Dir * *

will give two full directory listings one after the other.
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Hi --

I'm still confused, though. As far as I remember, "?" is ANY character. The
pattern "* ?*" should pick up any name that has a space and at least one
more character following the space. The pattern "* *" should pick up any
name that has a space and zero or more characters. (Although that would be
an illegal file name...)

I wish Windows would "just do it" and incorporate regular expression
matching ...

Thanks again,
CL

"David Candy" <.> wrote in message
? is a character - it must exist. * is NONE or more characters. It may have
worked without the ?, I didn't try because I learnt long ago to specify ?*
which is one or more characters rather than none or more.