This article describes the search syntax (what you enter in the Search box) and how WinCatalog interprets it.

All searches are case insensitive: “Text” equals to “TEXT” and “text”.

Simple Search Queries

Simple search queries contain one or more words (elements) separated by a space character. WinCatalog finds catalog entries (files and folders) containing all words starting with elements in any order.

If the search query contains one or more dots like “img.jpg”, it will be split into two elements “img” and “.jpg” (both without quotes), so the search query “img.jpg” equal to “img .jpg”.

Changes in the 2023.2 version: If the search term starts with a dot, it is treated as an extension. WinCatalog will look for entries containing the search term at the end of filenames. For the example above, the search phrase “img.jpg” (without quotes) will be split into “img” and “.jpg”. The second part starts with a dot and means “extension”.

Examples

Search query:

report

Results:

Report.xlsx

My Report s

Report age.mp4

The following entries will NOT be found:

MyReport.xlsx (the “Report” part is not located at the beginning. To include this filename to search results, prepend the search term by an asterisk: “*report” without quotes)

Search query:

img.jpg

Results:

img.jpg

img 2452**.jpg**

img _6515**.jpg** -backup

The following entry will NOT be found:

img.jpg**.tmp** (the file has the .tmp extension, to include it in the search results, change the search query to “img.jpg*” without quotes)

jpg img.png

Important notice: the file “img _6515**.jpg** -backup” in the example above is included in the results because the extension starts with .jpg. If you want to exclude such results. use the “end of the word” operator $ (described below), so the search query should be “img.jpg**$** " (without quotes).

For each entry in the catalog, WinCatalog divides filenames to words by splitting them using spaces, underscores, dashes, dots, comas, tildes, square brackets, and others.

Search query:

man

Results:

Rain.Man.1988.avi

User_man ual.pdf

The following entry will NOT be found:

Kingsman The Secret Service.mkv

Search query:

Bob

Results:

Bob Marley - Kaya.mp3

Bob cat.jpg

Sponge Bob.mp4

Wildcards

In most cases, there is no need to use wildcards in simple queries. However, if you want to find entries containing search terms in any position , prepend them with asterisks.

Search query:

*man

Results:

Rain.Man.1988.avi

User_man ual.pdf

Kingsman The Secret Service.mkv

The asterisk character (”*") substitutes for any zero or more characters, and the question mark ("?") substitutes for any one character.

The character may be omitted for some terms. For example, to find all files having the jpg extension, you may type “*.jpg” or just “.jpg”. Both search queries will return the same results.

Quotes (exact match operator)

Double quotes mean exact match for the whole word or a phrase. Use them to find the whole phrase as is. All wildcards inside double quotes are disables (in other words, they works as regular characters).

Search query:

“rain man”

Results:

Rain Man Poster.jpg

Search query:

“man”

Result:

Rain Man Poster.jpg

The following entry will NOT be found:

manual.pdf

Search query:

“my file.txt”

Result:

my file.txt

my file.txt.mp3 (the double quotes operator turns off the “extension rule” described above in the “Simple Search Queries” section)

The following entries will NOT be found:

my file123.txt

my main file.txt

Search query:

“my file*.txt”

Result:

(the double quotes operator turns off wildcards, and the asterisk in the search query is a regular character)

The following entries will NOT be found:

my file.txt

my file.txt.mp3

my file123.txt

my main file.txt

Square brackets (strict match operator)

The square brackets are similar to double quotes with a purpose to find the exact word or phrase, but square bracket do not turn off wildcards the search term enclosed in square brackets may be the beginning of the word.

Search query:

[man]

Results:

Rain Man Poster.jpg

man ual.pdf

Search query:

[my file.txt]

Results:

my file.txt

my file.txt.mp3

The following entry will NOT be found:

my file123.txt

Search query:

[my file*.txt]

Results:

my file.txt

my file.txt.mp3

my file 123**.txt**

The following entry will NOT be found:

my main file.txt

Begin of the Line Operator

As described above, when you perform a simple search, WinCatalog finds entries containing words that start with the entered search terms, regardless of the word order. For example, a search for “big app” (without quotes) will find both “big apple” and “the apple is big.”

In most cases, this is the desired behavior. However, there are times when you want to find elements whose names (or other data fields) start with the entered search query. In such cases, use the beginning-of-string operator: start the search term with the caret symbol (^) to ‘stick’ it to the beginning of the first word of each searchable field.

Search query:

^document

Results:

Document.pdf
Document s and Reports 2024.xlsx

The following entry will NOT be found because the filename doesn’t start with the ‘document’:

My Document.pdf

The beginning-of-string operator should be applied to individual terms rather than to a group of terms. For example, if you want to find files with filenames starting with ‘image’ or ‘photo’, the search query should be “^image OR ^photo” (without quotes).

For example, to find filenames starting with the letter ‘A’ followed by a space, use the square brackets (the strict match operator, described above) in combination with the beginning-of-string operator.

Search query:

[^A ] (notice the space between A and the closing bracket)

Results:

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.pdf

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster.epub

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.fb2

The following entry will NOT be found, because the ‘A-space’ part is not located at the beginning:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.epub

End of the word operator

The end-of-the-word operator ($) requires the search term to end exactly where a word ends. Use it, for example, to find entries with a certain file extension.

The term anchored with $ matches when it ends at the end of a searchable field or at the end of a word inside it. For example, “img.jpg$” (without quotes) finds “img.jpg” and also “img.jpg Vacation photos” (the term ends where the word “img.jpg” ends), but not “img.jpg.tmp”.

Search query:

img.jpg**$**

Results:

img.jpg

img 2452**.jpg**

The following entry will NOT be found because it doesn’t end with ‘.jpg’:

img_6515.jpg**-backup**

Search query:

.xls**$**

Results:

Report**.xls**

My Movies Database**.xls**

The following entry will NOT be found:

My Expences**.xlsx**

Logical Search Operators

Use search operators AND, NOT and OR to logically combine search queries.

expr1 AND expr2

expr1 OR expr2

expr1 NOT expr2

Operators are case insensitive. “NOT” equals to “not”, “OR” equals to “or”, “AND” equals to “and”.

The space between two search terms works as an implicit AND: “rain man” equals to “rain AND man”.

Operator precedence. NOT binds strongest, then AND (including the implicit AND between adjacent terms), then OR:

rain man OR poster   means   (rain AND man) OR poster

NOT rain man   means   (NOT rain) AND man

Use parentheses (described below) whenever you want a different grouping — they always win over precedence.

NOT may also follow another operator: “expr1 OR NOT expr2” is a valid query and means expr1 OR (NOT expr2).

Quoted and bracketed terms combine with operators like any other term. For example, the search query ‘report “final” OR draft’ (with the double quotes) means (report AND “final”) OR draft.

Search query:

.jpg OR .png

Results:

photo**.jpg**

picture**.png**

Search query:

.jpg not portrait

Results:

panoramic.jpg

nature.jpg

The following entries will NOT be found:

my portrait.jpg

portraits.jpg

Search query:

man not .jpg

Results:

rain.man.1988.mkv

rain.man.1988.trailer.avi

rain.man.1988.srt

The following entry will NOT be found:

rain.man.1988.poster**.jpg**

Brackets

Use brackets () to combine search operators like in mathematics.

Search query:

rain.man not (.srt or .jpg)

Results:

rain.man.1988.mkv

rain.man.1988.trailer.av

The following entries will NOT be found:

rain.man.1988**.srt**

rain.man.1988.poster**.jpg**

Brackets can be nested, and NOT can be used inside brackets:

((draft or final) and report) not .tmp

report and (not draft)

Escape quotes and brackets

The escape character is defined by non-quoted backslash (\). It preserves the double quote character, round/square brackets, wildcards characters (*, ?), and the backlash itself, followed by this symbol.

Search query:

document\(*\)

Results:

document(1).docx

document(2024).docx

The following entries will NOT be found:

document 2024.docx (the filename doesn’t contain brackets)

Search query:

Archive\\(Books)

Results:

Archive\(Books).zip

The following entries will NOT be found:

Archive(Books).zip