The Find tool lets you quickly locate a specific character string or numeric value. The power of the Find tool lies in its ability to accept expressions. NExS is not limited to just locating a specified string. It can find numeric values that meet certain logical or calculated conditions and can find strings that match specified patterns.
For example, you can search for cells whose values are greater than 100 and less than 150, or for cells whose values are less than the average of the three preceding cells. This facility is extremely useful for spotting patterns in large, complex data sets.
You can tell NExS which part of the spreadsheet to search, whether to search by row or by column, and whether to search for text characters or numeric values.
To use the Find tool:
Search Range | Specify the range of cells in which NExS should search, by entering two corner coordinates (e.g. A1..Z55). The default range is the entire spreadsheet. If a range was selected when you invoked the Find operation, the default is this selected range. |
Target | Specify the string or value as it would
appear formatted in the cell. To find
a numeric value that meets certain
criteria, enter an expression in
Target. For example, to find values
less than 20, specify the Filter as
#<20 and do a numeric search. Target
criteria is explained in more detail
in the following section.
|
To find the next occurrence of the value or string being searched, select Find Next button from the Search menu. Alternatively, press the [F7] key to repeat the search. The Find operation (described above) must precede the Find Next operation.
To find the previous value that was searched, select Find Previous from the Search menu. Alternatively, press [F8] key to search the previous value.
The Target of a search may be specified as a text regular expression pattern or a numeric formula.
To simply search for text strings as they appear in the spreadsheet, type the string inside the Target entry box as it would appear when formatted in the cell and select Text Comparison. For example:
Doe, John
The Text Comparison method can also be used to find formatted numeric values as they appear in the cells. For example:
$1,000,000
To find cell values that meet criteria that can be specified mathematically, enter the Target as a formula and select Numeric Comparison. ``#'' is used to represent the current cell being evaluated. For example:
# < 20
# >= 50
#<600 && #{0,-1}<500 && #{0,1}<500
#==@DATE(91,8,22)
NExS follows these rules when finding a target string:
. | A period matches any character (e.g. A.C matches ``ABC'' or ``AXC''). |
^ | Matches only at the beginning of a field (e.g.\
^ ABC matches ``ABC'' but not ``AABC''). |
$ | Matches only at the end of a field (e.g. ABC$ matches ``AABC'' but not ``ABCD''). |
[x-y] | Matches any character between the character x and the character y (e.g. [0-5]$ finds fields ending in the characters 0 through 5). |
[xyz] | Matches any character in the list xyz (e.g. [05]$ finds fields ending in either a 0 or a 5). This form and the one above can be combined. [27-9]$ will find fields ending with the characters 2, 7, 8, or 9. |