BARfly Help

BARfly Help - Node editing - Finding and replacing data

Finding and replacing data

Finding and replacing data is a very straightforward process. To find data, you select Edit.Find from the menu or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F. To replace data, you select Edit.Replace from the menu or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+H. To move to a specific line in the data display view, you select Edit.Go to Line from the menu or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+G.

You can find data in any of the BARfly builds, but data replacement requires BARfly Silver or better.

The "Find " dialog box contains two fields that control the search data: the Search Type field, and the Search Data field. The search type choices available to you will vary depending on the context used to find data. The search data is a line where you enter the actual content to search for: text, UID, name, value, etc.

If you are searching for text, you are given the opportunity to choose whether or not to perform a case-sensitive search or case insensitive search. This is controlled by the Match Case check box.

When the primary control displayed in the data display window is an edit control, you can choose whether to search forward or backwards from the cursor position in the edit control. The button "Down" searches down (or forwards), which is the default. The button "Up" searches up (or backwards).

The "Replace" dialog box contains two fields that control the search data: the Search Type field, and the Search Data field. The search type choices available to you will vary depending on the context used to replace data. The search data is a line where you enter the actual content to search for: text or a value.

You provide replacement data in a third field: Replacement Data. This can be text or a value.

Replacement operations only search forwards; you cannot search "up" or "backwards."

You can choose to replace only a single instance or multiple instances. The "Replace Once" button finds only a single instance and replaces just that one instance. The "Replace All" button locates all instances forward of the cursor and replaces each instance in turn.

The "Go to Line" dialog box contains only one field, which accepts a positive line number. You can use this feature of BARfly to jump to a line number in any data display view that has lines consistently organized vertically. This includes views with edit controls (the line of text), list controls (the list line item), and the raw view (the line of raw words). This feature is unavailable with tree controls, because vertical organization of lines is inconsistent.

Line numbers are one-based; the first line number of any control is always one.

BARfly has a sophisticated take on the typical desktop methods of finding and replacing data in a file. There are three different contexts for finding and replacing data:

Text: Finding and replacing text in an edit control.
Nodes: Finding nodes in the node browser.
Raw Data: Finding words in raw view.

Finding and Replacing Data: Edit Controls

When the Find or Replace dialogs are invoked when the primary control in the data display window is an edit control, you only get one possible search type: text. The Search Type field displays only "Text."

If the search is successful, the text is highlighted in the control. For replacement operations, the text is replaced with the Replacement Data. If the search is unsuccessful, the log indicates the text was not found.

You can repeat the last find operation by pressing the F3 key.

Finding Data: Node Browser

When the last active window was the node browser window, the Find dialog gives you a variety of search types to choose from. Use the Search Type combo box to select the type of content.

You cannot replace data from the node browser. There is no Replace dialog implementation for the node browser.

The possible search types are as follows:

Text (entire field)
Text (partial field)
Construct or Variable name
Construct UID
Construct Name
Variable Name
Number (any type)
Number (char)
Number (short)
Number (long)
Number (longlong)
Number (float)
Number (double)

The possible interpretations of the Search Value are explained as follows.

Search Type = Text (entire field)
Search Type = Text (partial field)

Searching for text in the node browser is similar to searching for text in an edit control. The search passes forward and down from the current selection in the node browser. All children of a node are checked before the next node is checked. If all children in a node have been checked, focus moves back up to the parent, and the next sibling of the parent is checked. The search stops when the text is found or the end of the tree is reached.

If the search is successful, the node containing the text is selected in the node browser, and the data display view is updated to indicate the found text (results depend on node type containing the text). If the search is unsuccessful, the log indicates the text was not found.

For text blocks, text entered into the Search Data field is automatically scaled to match the character size. For all other nodes, including non-text unorganized blocks and data structures, the characters searched are assumed to have a unit size of one byte.

Markup is not processed in the search data. The text entered in the Search Data field is exactly what is used in the search, character for character.

It is important to distinguish searching for text over an entire field versus searching for text in any part of the field. If the "Text (entire field)" type is used, the node must be composed of only the search data, with or without a null byte. If the size of the field does not match the number of characters in the search data, there is no match for the search.

If the "Text (partial field)" type is used, any part of the field can contain the search data.

Search Type = Construct or Variable Name
Search Type = Construct Name
Search Type = Variable Name

You can search for names in the node browser. You can have the value in the Search Data be treated as a construct name, a variable name, or either a construct or a variable name. The search passes forward and down from the current selection in the node browser. All children of a node are checked before the next node is checked. If all children in a node have been checked, focus moves back up to the parent, and the next sibling of the parent is checked. The search stops when the node matching the name is found or the end of the tree is reached.

If the search is successful, the node with the correct name is selected in the node browser, and the data display view is updated to indicate the found node (results depend on whether the node is visible in the node browser or in the data display view). If the search is unsuccessful, the log indicates the node was not found.

Constructs have unique names. Variables have unique names only within the context of the structure in which they were declared. While you can only find one type of construct if you search for a construct name, you might find more than one type of construct if you search for a variable name. This is because two data structures, for example, "xyz" and "vwx," might both have the variable "x," and the search will turn up whichever structure happens to be closest to the starting point of the search.

If you search for one of the built-in simple type construct names (char, short, long, longlong, float, or double), you can search for any unorganized block with the simple type as a unit type, or any structure with the simple type used to represent any one of its variables.

Search Type = Number

You can search for particular numerical values in the node browser. The value in the Search Data is interpreted as either an integer or floating-point number. The search passes forward and down from the current selection in the node browser. All children of a node are checked before the next node is checked. If all children in a node have been checked, focus moves back up to the parent, and the next sibling of the parent is checked. The search stops when the node with a matching number is found or the end of the tree is reached.

If the search is successful, the node with the correct number contained within is selected in the node browser, and the data display view is updated to indicate the found node (results depend on node type containing the number). If the search is unsuccessful, the log indicates the number was not found.

The Search Data field is parsed according to the subnode value-entry parsing rules. The number can be a numerical quantity, a short string, or an enumerated constant name.

You can pick a specific simple type for comparison purposes in order to look for numbers of only one simple-type format, or you can search for numbers implemented in any simple type. The search type "Number (any type)" searches for the first number in any format that matches the search data. The remaining search types search for the first number in just the specified type that matches the search data.

Finding and Replacing Data: Raw View

In raw view, finding and replacing data operates in a very different fashion as other mechanisms for finding and replacing data. You can find and replace text or numbers, but BARfly is much more liberal about the interpretation of data as text and numbers in raw view than in other contexts.

The possible search types are as follows:

Text
Number (char)
Number (short)
Number (long)
Number (longlong)
Number (float)
Number (double)

The possible interpretations of the Search Value are explained as follows.

Search Type = Text

Searching for text in raw view is very straightforward. The search passes forward from the raw cursor. The search stops when the text is found or the end of the data is reached.

If the search is successful, the raw cursor moves to the start of the text. For replacement operations, the text is replaced with the Replacement Data. If the search is unsuccessful, the log indicates the text was not found.

Markup is not processed in the search data. The text entered in the Search Data and Replacement Data fields is exactly what is used, character for character.

There is no scaling of text characters in raw view beyond one byte per character.

Replacement data cannot exceed the size of the search data. If the string in Search Data is shorter than the string in Replacement Data, only the number of characters from Search Data are copied from Replacement Data.

Search Type = Number

Searching for numbers in raw view is a somewhat open-ended operation. You specify the simple type of the number you are searching for, just like when finding a number from the node browser, but the number does not need to be directly represented as a word in the view. BARfly finds a number based on any sequence of bytes that, when put together, constitute a matching number. If this means the word size is 32 bits and the search type is "Number (short)," the raw cursor can end up at any word that contains all or part of the searched word's spanned bytes. BARfly finds the number, aligned or not.

If the search is successful, the raw cursor moves to the word where the first byte of the number was found. For replacement operations, the number is replaced with the Replacement Data. If the search is unsuccessful, the log indicates the number was not found.

The Search Data and Replacement Data fields are parsed according to the subnode value-entry parsing rules. The numbers can be numerical quantities, short strings, or enumerated constant names.