Search Modifiers

Search modifiers control how search terms are matched.

They can be used to enable features such as case-sensitive matching, whole-word matching, regular expressions, full path matching and many other search behaviors.

If no search modifier is specified, Everything performs a partial filename match using the current search settings.

Syntax
Common Modifiers
Modifiers
See also

Syntax

An Everything search is made up of search terms.
Search terms can be literal text or search functions.
Literal text without a search function matches filenames.

Search terms can be combined using search operators:
<space> = AND
| = OR
< > = Group search terms
" " = literal text (escape spaces, |, < and >)

Multiple search modifiers can be combined and prefixed to search terms.

Examples:
len:>20 = filenames with a length greater than 20
len:album:>20 = files where the album length is greater than 20
regex:^foo = filenames starting with foo
regex:content:^foo = files with content starting with foo
case:wholewords:path:FOO = full paths matching case-sensitive whole word FOO

Search modifiers can be disabled by prefixing it with: no-
For example, if Match Path is enabled under the Search menu, use no-path: to disable full path matching:
no-path:abc

Prefix a search modifier with ? to enable it for the rest of the search.
For example, to enable match case for the rest of the search:
?case: FOO BAR

Use a * suffix on a search modifier to treat the rest of the search as literal text.
For example, to treat the rest of the search as literal text with regex:
regex*:^foo bar$

Prefix a search modifier with :: to force the use of the built-in modifier, bypassing any user-defined override.
For example, to refer to the built-in case search modifier:
::case:

Search modifiers can be applied to < > groups.
For example:
case:<FOO BAR>

Hyphens (-) in search modifiers can be omitted.
For example:
no-whole-words: is the same as nowholewords:

Common Modifiers

case: = Match case.
ww: = Match whole words.
path: = Match full path and name.
regex: = Use regular expressions.
diacritics: = Match accent marks.

Modifiers

all-strings:: Match all strings in a multi-string value.

For example:
all-strings:author:john;jane

Default: match any string value.
and-filter:: Use in a filter search.
AND this filter when multiple filters are selected.

For example:
and-filter: d:|e:
and-filter: !c:\windows\

Default: OR multiple filters.

See also: or-filter:
and-precedence:: Makes AND evaluate before OR when parsing search expressions.

For example:
?and-precedence: sonic tails | mario luigi => (sonic tails) | (mario luigi)

Default: Use Tools -> Options -> Search -> Operator precedence setting. (OR > AND by default)

See also: ?or-precedence:
binary:: Treat the search and file content as a byte stream.

For example:
binary:content:\x00\x00\x01\x10
binary:content:abc123

ASCII text is supported.
Use \x00 - \xff to specify a byte value in hex.

Default: Disabled.
case:
no-case:: Enables or disables case-sensitive matching.

For example:
case:WINDOWS
no-case:WINDOWS

Default: Use the Match Case setting under the Search menu.
diacritics:
no-diacritics:: Match or ignore accent marks.

For example:
diacritics:"Déjà Vu"
no-diacritics:"Deja Vu"

Aliases: diac:

Default: Use the Match Diacritics setting under the Search menu.
dot-all:: When enabled, regular expression . will match all characters.
When disabled, regular expression . will match all characters except new lines.

For example:
dotall:regex:content:"line 1.*line 2"
regex:content:"(?s)line 1.*line 2"

Default: Disabled.

See also: regex:
each-line:: Match each line or match the entire content.
If enabled, searching stops on the first line matched.

For example:
eachline:content:<a b> (find a and b on the same line)
eachline:content:<a b c d|e|f !g !h !i>

Default: Disabled (match the entire content).
end-with:: Match the end of filenames.

For example:
endwith:hosts

Aliases: $:

Default: Disabled.
expand:: Evaluate any preprocessor text for each file or folder.
Use \0 - \9 to recall any previous regular expression captures.
use \\ to escape a single literal \
Ensure any preprocessor text is escaped to avoid early expansion.

For example:
regex:comment:(.+) expand:\1 (Find files where the comment exists in the filename)

Default: Disabled.
no-fast-regex:: Disable regex optimization.
Regex optimizations will need to be disabled if you would like to use the regex match 0 property without using a special character in your regex pattern.

For example:
no-fast-regex:regex:abc123 regexmatch0:123

Default: Enabled.
file:
folder:: Match files or folders only.

For example:
folder:music
file: .mp3

Aliases: files-only: folders-only:

Default: Match files and folders.
no-filename-wildcards:: Enables or disables filename wildcards. (for example *.mp3)

When disabled, * and ? are treated as literal characters instead of wildcards.

Use &quest: for ? and &ast: for * to escape wildcard characters.
When a wildcard is escaped, all filename wildcard matching is disabled.

For example:
no-filename-wildcards:?

Default: Enabled.
global:: When enabled, find all occurrences of the regular expression.
When disabled, find only the first occurrence.

If no group capture is specified, the entire match is captured.

For example:
global:regex:\d+

Default: Disabled.

See also: regex:
hex:: Convert 2 character hex codes into a single byte and treats the search and file content as a byte stream.

For example:
hex:48656C6C6F
hex:startwith:content:89504E47 = matches PNG file signatures

Default: Disabled.
hex-to-number:: Compare a filename or property value in hex as an integer.

For example:
hex-to-number:0x1000..0x2000

Default: Disabled.
no-highlight:: Disable highlighting for this term.

For example:
no-highlight:path:foo

Default: Highlight the search term.
from-disk:: Search properties and content from disk (not from the index).

For example:
fromdisk:length:>5m

Default: Search indexed properties only. If the property is not included in the index, search the property from disk.
len:: Search for the length of the filename or property value in UTF-16 characters.

For example:
len:>20
len:5..10
path:len:>259
len:3

Default: Disabled.
menu-break:: Show this filter or bookmark in a new menu column in context menus.

For example:
menu-break:

Default: Show the filter or bookmark in one long context menu.
menu-separator:: Show this filter as a menu separator in context menus.

For example:
menu-separator:

Default: Show filter by name.
metric:
no-metric:: Use the metric size format.

For example:
metric:size:1kb = size:1000

Default: Use Tools -> Options -> Size Standard setting. (disabled by default)
multi-line:: Controls how ^ and $ behave in regex searches.

When enabled, ^ and $ match the start and end of each line.
When disabled, ^ and $ match the start and end of the entire text.

For example:
multiline:regex:content:"^A line of text$"

Default: Disabled.

See also: regex:
multi-string:
no-multi-string:: Treats semicolon (;) separated property values as a list of individual strings.

When enabled, matching is applied to each item in the list separately.
When disabled, the entire value is treated as a single string.

For example:
multistring:regex:content:"^An item in a list$"
nomultistring:zipfilename:"abc.txt;123.txt"

Default: Enabled for properties that support multiple values. Otherwise disabled.

See also: regex:
See also: all-strings:
no-!:: Disable the not operator (!).

For example:
no-!:!readme.txt

Default: Allow the not operator (!).
or-filter:: Use in a filter search.
OR this filter when multiple filters are selected.

For example:
or-filter: ext:mp3;jpg

Default: OR multiple filters.

See also: and-filter:
or-precedence:: Makes OR evaluate before AND when parsing search expressions.

For example:
?or-precedence: sonic tails | mario luigi => sonic (tails | mario) luigi

Default: Use Tools -> Options -> Search -> Operator precedence setting. (OR > AND by default)

See also: ?and-precedence:
path:
no-path:: Enables or disables matching against the full path.

When enabled (path:), searches are performed on the full path and name.
When disabled (no-path:), searches are performed on the name only.

For example:
path:system32 hosts

Aliases: \:

Default: Use the Match Path setting under the Search menu.

Use the path-part: search function to search the path part only.
pinyin:
no-pinyin:: Match Chinese characters with QuanPin Pinyin.

For example:
pinyin:nihao = matches: 你好

Aliases: py:

Default: Use Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> pinyin setting. (disabled by default)

See also: pinyin_type
See also: pinyin-jian:
See also: pinyin-quan:
pinyin-jian:: Match Chinese characters with Single Character Pinyin.

For example:
pinyin-jian:nh = matches: 你好

Aliases: pyj:

Default: Disabled.

See also: pinyin:
See also: pinyin-quan:
pinyin-quan:: Match Chinese characters with QuanPin Pinyin.

For example:
pinyin-quan:nihao = matches: 你好

Aliases: pyq:

Default: Disabled.

See also: pinyin-jian:
See also: pinyin:
prefix:
no-prefix:: Enables or disables matching the start of words.

For example:
prefix:ever

Default: Use the Prefix setting under the Search menu.
ignore-punctuation:
no-ignore-punctuation:: Controls whether punctuation in filenames is ignored.

For example:
ignore-punctuation:spiderman = matches spider-man

Aliases: nopunc:

Default: Use the Ignore Punctuation setting under the Search menu.

See also: ignore_punctuation_type
regex:: Enables regular expressions.

When enabled, the search term parser will eat all | characters.

Use regex*: (or regex:function*:) to treat the rest of the search as literal text.

For example:
regex:content:^foo
regex:content:gr(a|e)y
regex:content*:abc 123 "text in quotes"
case:regex:content:^FOO

Default: Use the Regular Expressions setting under the Search menu.

See also: dot-all:
See also: global:
See also: multiline:
See also: ungreedy:
enable-result-omissions:
disable-result-omissions:: Enables or disables result omissions globally.

Default: Use the Enable Result Omissions setting under the Index menu.
no-reorder:: Disables search term reordering.

When enabled, search terms are reordered from fastest to slowest.

For example:
noreorder:content:^foo bar.txt

Default: Enabled.
no-search-current-results:: Disables searching within the current results.

Everything will search within the current results when possible to improve performance.
Use no-search-current-results: to perform a full re-search.

For example:
no-search-current-results: dm:5mins

Default: Enabled.
soundex:: Match files by SQL soundex.

The prefix is matched.
Combine with whole-words: to match whole words.
Only A-Z, a-z letters are currently supported.

For example:
soundex:david
soundex:artist:michael

Default: Disabled.
star-all:: Controls whether wildcard * matches path separators.

When enabled, * matches all characters.
When disabled, * matches all characters except \ and /.

For example:
starall:c:*abc.txt

Default: Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> wildcards_star_all. (disabled by default)
start-with:: Matches only the start of a filename or property value.

For example:
startwith:ever

Aliases: ^:

Default: Disabled.
no-substitute:: Disables property substitution.

When enabled, $property: is replaced with the value of the specified property.

For example:
stem:$extension: = matches files that have the extension in the stem. (eg: txt.txt)
no-substitute:$extension: = finds the literal text $extension: in the filename

Default: Enabled for filenames and filename-like property values. Otherwise disabled.
suffix:
no-suffix:: Enables or disables matching the end of words.

For example:
suffix:hosts

Default: Use the Suffix setting under the Search menu.
enable-temp-result-omissions:
disable-temp-result-omissions:: Enables or disables temporary result omissions globally.

Default: Use the Enable Temporary Result Omissions setting under the Index menu.
to-integer:: Compare a filename or property value as an integer.

For example:
to-integer:album:>10

Default: Disabled.
to-number:: Compare a filename or property value as a real number.

For example:
to-number:album:>1.5

Aliases: #:

Default: Disabled.
to-string:: Compare a property value as text.

For example:
tostring:date-modified:/02/
regex:tostring:date-modified:^201

Default: Disabled.
ungreedy:: When enabled, regex quantifiers default to ungreedy (lazy) matching.
When disabled, regex quantifiers default to greedy matching.

For example:
ungreedy:regex:(.*)
ungreedy:regex:(.*?)

Default: Disabled.

See also: regex:
whole:: Matches the whole filename or property value.

For example:
whole:hosts

Aliases: whole-filename: wfn: entire:

Default: Disabled.
ignore-whitespace:
no-ignore-whitespace:: Controls whether whitespace in filenames is ignored.

For example:
ignore-whitespace:spiderman matches spider man

Aliases: nows:

Default: Use the Ignore White-Space setting under the Search menu.
whole-words:
no-whole-words:: Enables or disables whole word matching.

For example:
whole-words:foo

Aliases: ww:

Default: Use the Match Whole Words setting under the Search menu.
wildcards:: Enables extended wildcard matching.

By default, * and ? are used as filename wildcards (for example *.mp3).

When enabled, wildcards: switches wildcard parsing into extended mode, allowing full wildcard syntax for content searches and advanced patterns.

Use wildcards*: (or wildcards:function*:) to treat the rest of the search as literal text.

Use no-wildcards: to search for literal * and ? characters in filenames.

* = matches zero or more characters
? = matches any single character (including / or \)
# = matches any single digit (0-9)
[ ] = matches any one character in the set
[! ] = matches any character not in the set
\ = escapes the next character (C-style escapes supported)

For example:
wildcards:####*
wildcards:[a-m]*
wildcards:content:foo*
wildcards:content*:a b c*
wildcards:*\x0D\x0A

Default: Use Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> wildcards. (disabled by default)