When searching a file for text, you may restrict your search to a column or range of columns.

 

To do this, you must enable the Columns checkbox and enter the column (or range) in the space provided. The most recently used columns may be selected from the drop-down list box.

 

Only text that begins in the column (or lies in the column range) will be matched.

 

You may specify a column range in one of 2 ways:

 

n-m

Match strings that start anywhere between columns n and m

n-

Match strings that start anywhere after (and including) column n

 

You may also specify more than one column range by separating them with commas. The following are examples of valid column specifiers:

 

1

Match if text starts at column 1 (ie, start of the line)

1-10

Match if text starts in columns 1 to 10

1,12,80

Match if text starts in column 1 or 12 or 80

1-5,20-29,80-

Match if text starts in columns 1 to 5, or columns 20 to 29, or starts anywhere after (and including) column 80
                                       

 

Using Regular Expressions to search for data in columns

 

Regular expressions can also be used to search for text in columns (and even for text not in a certain column).