Use NotFind to move the cursor forward (toward the bottom) from the current line to the first line that does not have a specified string of characters at a specified column. That is, NotFind looks for the absence of a string of characters. It succeeds as soon as it does not find the string.
NotFind may also be entered as NF[ind].
Optional Operands
STR is the string to search for. Up to 72 characters may be specified. If the value of STR begins with the backslash character (\), the search will use Extended Search Pattern rules.
Default: The value for STR and any other operands not specified will be inherited from previous search commands, also as described below.
COL specifies the column to search at. COL must be a value from 1 to the session maximum line width. If COL and STR are not specified, the COL specification is inherited from previous search commands.
Default: If COL, after any inheriting, is not specified, the current session FINDCOL value is used.
CASE specifies whether upper/lower case should be considered when determining matches. If specified as U or I[gnore], case is ignored (the matches The). If specified as M[atch], both case and letters must match. If CASE and STR are not specified, the CASE specification is inherited from previous search commands, as described below.
Default: If CASE, after any inheriting, is not specified, U is assumed.
FILTER specifies a string or set of strings. If the STR string is found at the search column, but the FILTER string is also found at the search column, the STR string will be considered to have not been found. To specify multiple strings for this operand, enclose the strings in parentheses, and separate them from each other by by commas or spaces. If one of the strings contains a blank, comma, or right parenthesis character, enclose the string in apostrophes (') or quotation marks ("). The following are valid FILTER values:
FILTER=DATES
FILTER=(DATES,DATE-TO-COMPLETE)
FILTER=(DATES DATED)
FILTER=('DATE OF',DATED)
Although its use is not rejected, the operation of FILTER with respect to Extended Search Pattern is undefined. In general, this operand should not be used when an Extended Search Pattern is specified for STR.
The search begins with the line following the current line and proceeds until a line is found that does not contain the specified match at the specified column. An error message will display if such a line is not found.
NotFind is used to find the next line at which a consecutive series of values changes. It is used with text lines that contain very consistent data. For example, after text lines have been sorted, NotFind can be used to find the next break in the key columns.
If STR is not specified on the command, BIM-EDIT/XP uses as default operand values those from previous search commands. Using this feature, you can easily request searches that are similar or identical to the last one. For example, after a Find command that failed because the instance is backward from the current line, you need only enter
=> findup
to repeat exactly the same command in the backward direction. To achieve this, BIM-EDIT/XP stores a previous value for the STR, COL, CASE, and ZONE operands of the search commands (FileScan, Find, FindFirst, FindUp, Locate, LocateUp, NotFind, NotFindUp, Qualify, ExcludePattern, IntegratePattern, or SelectPattern). These previous values will be inherited by operands omitted from a search command that does not specify STR. Whenever a search command specifies STR, the previous values are set to those specified on that command or not specified.
A long-running NotFind can be interrupted by pressing Ctrl-Break.
Return Codes
OK Successful.
AT Command interrupted by user (Ctrl-Break pressed).
NF Line without character string not found.
Procedure Notes
NotFind sets the pre-defined variable SslCsCol to COL if the search is successful.
Examples
Search for the first line that does not start with an asterisk (assume that the session FINDCOL value is set at 1):
=> nf *
Search for the absence of the same string as the last search:
=> nf