Use Qualify to reduce the current session to only those lines that contain a specified search pattern in a specified column range. Other lines continue to be part of the session but assume an excluded state and hence are not normally visible. (See Exclusion Facility.)
Qualify may also be entered as Q[ualify].
Optional Operands
STR is the string to search for. Up to 72 characters can 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.
ZONE is the column range for the search. Enter it in the format xxx-yyy where xxx and yyy are numbers between 1 and the maximum line width. For example, to limit the search to columns 10 to 20, specify ZONE as 10-20. ZONE=5 is the same as ZONE=5-5, ZONE=5-* specifies columns 5 through the session maximum line width, and ZONE=-5 is the same as ZONE=1-5.
Default: If ZONE and STR are not specified, the ZONE specification is inherited from previous search commands, as described below. If ZONE, after any inheriting, is not specified, the current session zone is searched.
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.
Default: If CASE and STR are not specified, the CASE specification is inherited from previous search commands, as described below. 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 within a portion of the line where a FILTER string is found, 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=UPDATE
FILTER=(UPDATE,VALIDATE)
FILTER=(UPDATE VALIDATE)
FILTER=(UPDATE,'TARGET DATE OF',VALIDATE)
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.
Qualify can be used with all session types.
You can issue Qualify against a session that has already been qualified.
If STR is not specified on the command, BIM-EDIT/XP uses as default operand values 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 Locate command that failed because the instance is backward from the current line, you need only enter
=> locateu
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 (DeselectPattern, Examine, 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 by that command or not specified.
Qualify increments the exclude level before excluding any lines.
Return Codes
OK Successful.
Examples
Restrict the session to only those lines containing the three-character string "alt":
=> q alt