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findstr /v "black"  File1.txt

Above DOS command will display content of 'File1.txt' which are not matching string "black".

How to modify this command , if I need to filter words "black" and "white" ?

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    The findstr tool is not part of MS-DOS. It comes with Windows (XP+?). I think you mean 'command line tool' instead of 'DOS command'.
    – Michel de Ruiter
    Jul 15, 2016 at 9:17

4 Answers 4

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How do I filter words "black" and "white"?

The following command will display all lines containing "black" NOR "white":

findstr /v "black white" blackwhite.txt

The following command will display all lines containing "black" OR "white":

findstr "black white" blackwhite.txt

The following command will display all lines containing EXACTLY "black white": 

findstr /c:"black white" blackwhite.txt

The following command will display all lines containing "black" AND "white":

findstr "white" blackwhite.txt | findstr "black"

Notes:

  • When the search string contains multiple words, separated with spaces, then findstr will return lines that contain either word (OR).

  • A literal search (/C:string) will reverse this behaviour and allow searching for a phrase or sentence. A literal search also allow searching for punctuation characters.

Example data file (blackwhite.txt):

red
black
white
blue
black white
black and white

Example output:

F:\test>findstr /v "black white" blackwhite.txt

red
blue

F:\test>findstr "black white" blackwhite.txt
black
white
black white
black and white

F:\test>findstr /c:"black white" blackwhite.txt
black white

F:\test>findstr "white" blackwhite.txt | findstr "black"
black white
black and white

Further Reading

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    very interesting.. I guess this would be searching for white AND black findstr "white" File2.txt | findstr "black"
    – barlop
    Jul 17, 2015 at 2:33
  • well, since we have NOR, So there is still a permutation we could consider missing. NAND. Another one we could consider missing, is XOR
    – barlop
    Jul 17, 2015 at 10:55
  • @barlop I can't figure out how to do NAND or XOR :/ I know what the output should be but how to get there ...
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Jul 17, 2015 at 12:06
  • maybe there isn't a nice quick way, it'd probably be a batch file checking errorlevel probably better to use some other tool if doing that, looks like grep can't,. But awk can do quite a bit or of course perl unix.stackexchange.com/questions/177513/…
    – barlop
    Jul 17, 2015 at 12:29
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat.
    – barlop
    Jul 17, 2015 at 12:31
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If you need to display all lines with the words "black" or "white" then get rid of the /v in your command.

Try: findstr white File1.txt or findstr black File1.txt or findstr "black white" File1.txt

The /V operand will print all lines that DO NOT contain your search string.

Type findstr /? for more info on how to use findstr.

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Wanted to add to this to mention how to use findstr with stdout on Windows for multiple searches.

Here is how to list only network interface names and their ip addresses:

ipconfig /all | findstr /i /L /c:"Ethernet" /c:"IPv4"

The Microsoft Documentation details each parameter

  • /i Ignores the case of the characters when searching for the string.
  • /l Processes search strings literally.
  • /c:<string> Uses the specified text as a literal search string.
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    – Community Bot
    Feb 23, 2022 at 19:35
0

Here is another example using a different output method, not just a straight file search. For example check for network port status where port = 98765 and status = ESTABLISHED or LISTENING.

For example this runs a netstat every five seconds, then pipes the netstat output to a FIND (could also use FINDSTR), then pipes those results to findstr to filter when the port is in a certain state (in this case ESTABLISHED or LISTENING).

netstat -an 5 | find "98765" | findstr "ESTABLISHED LISTENING"

TCP    192.168.123.456:57349     10.10.12.34:98765 ESTABLISHED
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