Comments on: How do I find text inside php?

Question: How do I find text inside php?

czechmate — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:11:26 -0800

Is there a program that will do a deep text search inside php and html files?

I have to find a certain text line inside hundreds of php and html files on my computer.
I've already used Total Commander and Windows Grep (I have no clue.. just found it while I was searching for an answer) and so far it's not turned up anything at all.
Anyone know of a program that could help out?

By: phearlez

phearlez — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:18:35 -0800

UltraEdit, my preferred editor, will find in files. There's a free trial.

By: moocheen

moocheen — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:20:00 -0800

Have you tried using a 'Find in Files' on an slight more advanced than Notepad text editor?

I've used Ultra-Edit quite succesfully for this before..

I'm sure there are freeware ones floating about too.

oooh.. beaten on Preview. Bravo phearlez.

By: le morte de bea arthur

le morte de bea arthur — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:22:03 -0800

Dreamweaver will also do this, although I wouldn't recommend buying a copy just for that...

By: meta_eli

meta_eli — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:34:48 -0800

grep will do it too, you just have to take the time to learn to use it. If you interested in learning how UNIX works anywayit might be worth it. You can install cygwin, which is like a mini UNIX environment hat runs in a box on windows.

Something like:
find . | xargs grep -i searchterm
would do it.

By: bricoleur

bricoleur — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:00:32 -0800

Tell us what operating system is on your computer.

By: Jairus

Jairus — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:35:18 -0800

If Windows Grep isn't finding it, you're either using it wrong, or it isn't there.

By: mmascolino

mmascolino — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:37:01 -0800

Regardless of your platform, jEdit text editor will work and it has a very powerful yet easy to use search facility.

By: Wild_Eep

Wild_Eep — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:04:56 -0800

On the Mac, I'd recommend TextWrangler.

By: charlie7691

charlie7691 — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:10:03 -0800

Windows search looks for text within files. Assuming you have Windows, why not use that?

By: misterbrandt

misterbrandt — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:10:40 -0800

A desktop search program (google Desktop, Windows Desktop Search, Yahoo Desktop Search, X1, Copernic, etc). They may not know to treat PHP as plaintext or even index it by default, but each program allows you to customize which file extensions are indexed as plaintext, or allow for plugins to enable additional file types.

By: phil

phil — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:15:42 -0800

the op is using windows. this is based on the names of the applications she says she has already tried to use.

zechmate, when you tried using grep what options did you use? if you are trying to match an exact phrase you may have more luck selecting the "Quick (no regular expressions)" search type.

By: sandpine

sandpine — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:20:34 -0800

Something I've found that seems to work on everything I've thrown at it is
'Agent Ransack' at www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack.

It's very fast. I do account research with it looking for snippits of names or
account numbers. Works well across network links. Been using it for four or
five years.

YMMV

SandPine

By: isoman2kx

isoman2kx — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:55:29 -0800

I'll second sandpine's suggestion. I use the pro version of Agent Ransack (filelocator pro), but if agent ransack is anything like filelocator pro, it'll be the last search tool you ever need.

By: seanyboy

seanyboy — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:02:54 -0800

I use textpad for this. It's equivalent to the other editors mentioned here, so which you use comes down to personal preference.

Here's a screencast of me finding text using textpad.
Note the use of regular expressions.

By: devlin

devlin — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:28:42 -0800

grep was the first thing that came to mind. Are you sure it's actually in the file?

By: fishfucker

fishfucker — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:10:45 -0800

If Windows Grep isn't finding it, you're either using it wrong, or it isn't there.

nthed.

keep in mind grep *can* be case sensitive. also keep in mind that if you have downloaded these php files from somewhere else, or they're not actually served from your computer, there is a very good chance the line you want to change is sitting in a database somewhere. perhaps if you give us more information about what these files are meant to do, we can help further.

Other advice: search for string fragments rather than the entire string in case it is pieced together over the course of several statements. make sure you're searching recursively through directories.

By: klanawa

klanawa — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:12:33 -0800

BareGrep

By: tjvis

tjvis — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:36:32 -0800

I use a great little tool called InfoRapid Search & Replace. You just add the file extensions you want to search, point it to a directory, and go. It will display the instances of the search term in context line by line, and save your searches in tabs. Best of all, it's free!

By: mphuie

mphuie — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:52:14 -0800

Without installing anything, you can use the command line tool FINDSTR. I've been using it for years with no issues.

By: jenkinsEar

jenkinsEar — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:00:14 -0800

I'd prefer to use cygwin grep myself, but perhaps google desktop search would work better for you?

By: czechmate

czechmate — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:57:39 -0800

I went so far as searching just for one word in that string of text using Grep, Commander, UltraEdit, BareGrep, InfoRapid, and it's not finding it. I wanted to make sure it wasn't just one program not being able to find it, so that's why I tried them all. (BareGrep was the nicest. I liked seeing the results as I type them in rather than a box showing progress)
I'm guessing this means it doesn't exist in the files I have. And I have already searched through the MySQL database wondering if the string is there.. and it wasn't there either. I'm not sure where Google is finding this string of text from.

Looks like I'll have to wait a week to ask another question. Heh.

Thanks everyone.

By: fishfucker

fishfucker — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:53:20 -0800

is it showing up in a google result but not showing up on the specific page that google attributes it to?

By: czechmate

czechmate — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:37:29 -0800

Ah. Your question fishfucker actually triggered an idea in my head while I was responding to you.
Google is not pulling the "description" from the website.. it's pulling from the DMOZ entry. I don't understand why it's doing that though. It's really screwing up the optimization of it. But the DMOZ entry is the exact string I've been searching for.