With a table open, the Edit - Find dialog allows us to find records which have the given value in the specified field. The Find dialog is a simple, typically Windows way to find records in smaller tables. A similar form of the Find dialog is used with queries and scripts windows (both of which use a Command Window) and comments text windows. Use Ctrl-F as a keyboard shortcut. The Edit - Find Previous and Edit - Find Next commands are equivalent to pressing the Previous or Next button in the Find dialog.
When searching for records in mid-sized or larger tables, the Select pane is a better tool, as are SQL queries. Filters are also a fast and easy tool that help finding desired records.
Open the table.
Choose Edit - Find or Ctrl-F.
Choose the field to be searched.
Enter the value desired in the Search For box.
Press Next.
The cursor will jump to the next record with the specified value in the given record.
Important: Searches proceed from the current record to the last record in the table. To begin at the beginning, we can press Ctrl-Home to jump the table cursor to the first record.
(field box) |
Choose the field within which to search. By default whatever field is the context field for the table cursor will appear. Any other visible field in the table may be chosen. The field box only lists fields currently set as visible in the Layers pane. Fields that are hidden will not appear in the field box. |
Search for |
The text value to find. For example, entering the as a Search for value in a text field will find records which contain text such as Manchester by the Sea. |
Whole word only |
Match the value only when it occurs as an entire word and not a portion of a word. With this option checked, for example, entering the as a Search for value in a text field will find records which contain text such as Manchester by the Sea, but will not match occurrences of those three letters within text such as Heather Village. |
Ignore case |
Match text regardless of case. For example, if this option is checked the will match both The and tHe. |
Previous |
Searching from the current cursor position in the table backward toward the beginning of the table, find the next instance of the value. |
Next |
Searching from the current cursor position in the table foreward toward the end of the table, find the next instance of the value. |
Close |
Close the dialog. |
Search for |
The text value to find. For example, entering the as a Search for value in a text field will find records which contain text such as Manchester by the Sea. |
Whole word only |
Match the value only when it occurs as an entire word and not a portion of a word. With this option checked, for example, entering the as a Search for value in a text field will find records which contain text such as Manchester by the Sea, but will not match occurrences of those three letters within text such as Heather Village. |
Ignore case |
Match text regardless of case. For example, if this option is checked the will match both The and tHe. |
Previous |
Searching from the current cursor position in the table backward toward the beginning of the table, find the next instance of the value. |
Next |
Searching from the current cursor position in the table foreward toward the end of the table, find the next instance of the value. |
Close |
Close the dialog. |
Tables are not ordered - As discussed in the Tables topic and the Table Windows and Big Data essay, tables are not ordered. If we open a table and use the Find dialog, we should understand that the Previous and Next commands are just for that particular view. If we close the table and open it again there is no guarantee it will be in the same order. If we want to see a table in a particular order, we should use a query with an ORDER BY clause and look at the results table.
Manifold Future - Five Minute Filters Quickstart - This five minute video shows how, using points of interest in Monaco to show how to combine filters on two different fields, and then we switch gears to show how two filters on the same field can be applied in seconds to get exactly the records we want.