Using the parent: function with multiple folders

[ymorgan]

I would like to search for files and folders in multiple locations, but restrict the search to not include subfolders. So I tried the following:

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parent:<"C:\Music"|"C:\Documents"> test

Unfortunately, that does not return the correct results. I've also tried without the grouping characters (i.e., "<>") which also doesn't work.

Can the parent: function take multiple paths?

Also, I notice that the parent: function doesn't work with single folder names (e.g., parent:"Music\"). I found the following example as an alternative:

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\Music !*\Music*\*\*

I've tried it and it works. It seems to work even with subfolders 3 or 4 levels deep. By looking at the code, it seems that it would only restrict 2 levels deep. Does that code explicitly restrict the search to not include all subfolders, no matter the depth?

[therube]

<parent:C:\Music | parent:C:\Documents> test

> Can the parent: function take multiple paths?
Appears not, at least not directly to a single parent:.

> parent: function doesn't work with single folder names (e.g., parent:"Music\")
Correct, it needs a path, C:\tmp\Music.

[void]

Sub expressions on parent: will be supported in a future release, eg:
parent:<"C:\Music"|"C:\Documents"> test

For now, you will need to specify multiple parent: terms (as therube has already mentioned), eg:
parent:"C:\Music" | parent:"C:\Documents" test

[ymorgan]

Thank you @therube and @void for confirming! The code @therube posted works perfectly. I can now restrict the search to multiple folders and not include subfolders, all on one line. I also found that combining single folder names and full paths in the group works, something like:

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<\"Downloads" !*\"Downloads"*\*\*|\Scripts !*\Scripts*\*\*|parent:"C:\Music"|parent:"C:\Documents"> test

@void: great to hear about the future update plans. Thanks for creating such an amazing piece of software!

[NotNull]

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\Music !*\Music*\*\*

I've tried it and it works. It seems to work even with subfolders 3 or 4 levels deep. By looking at the code, it seems that it would only restrict 2 levels deep. Does that code explicitly restrict the search to not include all subfolders, no matter the depth?

Clever!
And yes, that will restrict your search to files (and folders) that have a folder named "music" as their parent.
There is one thing to keep in mind, however:
If you have a folder c:\music\something\music\ , it will be excluded from your results because of the \music\ earlier in the path.

I needed this a while ago and the best I could come up with was a regular expression version:

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regex:"\\music\\[^\\]+$"

(basically saying to search for all names with \music\ and no "\" after that. Just like you did

(this requires Match path when a search term contains a path separator to be enabled, btw (menu: Tools > Options > Search).
But you have this enabled already or else your search wouldn't return any results

[ymorgan]

@NotNull: Great tip, thanks! I'll certainly be making use of it.

[NotNull]

Added to that: if you want to search for files taht have a parent named music or documents, you can use this

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regex:"\\(music|documents)\\[^\\]+$"

To speed up this search (as it might take a while)

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\music\|\documents\     regex:"\\(music|documents)\\[^\\]+$"

This will - fast- exclude most irrelevant folders before starting the regular expression pattern search on the remaining folders.