Extracting by Text String
Case-Sensitive Result
Multiple Text Strings
Special Cases

Extracting by Text String

Use the -f, -a, -e and -w switches to extract responses that contain text you specify. Use -T to extract a topic title containing text you specify.

extract -f textstring extracts any responses containing a one-word textstring. Specify one or more conferences after the string. The -f switch is not case- sensitive; extract -f FOoBaR books returns the same result as extract -f foobar books.

You must use -w to extract the entire response; -f normally extracts only the line in a response that contains the specified text.

Case-Sensitive Result

If you need a case-sensitive result, use -e as well as -f. Place it before or after -f and the desired text string, for example, extract -e -f FOoBaR or extract -f foobar -e.

Multiple Text Strings

Use up to 32 repetitions of -f ; the command returns responses containing any of the specified text strings.

extract -f Maturin -f Aubrey books extracts any Books conference responses containing either "Maturin" or "Aubrey."

If you have two or more text strings used as -f arguments, use the -a and -w switches to extract responses containing all of the specified text strings.

extract -a -w -f Maturin -f Aubrey -f Villiers books extracts responses containing "Maturin" and "Aubrey" and "Villiers." Without -w, only responses with "Maturin" and "Aubrey" and "Villiers" on the same line will be extracted.

Special Cases

If your string:

• Contains more than one word
• Contains tabs
• Contains asterisks or a question mark

You must:

• Enclose the phrase in single quotation marks, and
• Use a bang (exclamation point) in front of the extract command.

If your string contains a single quote - an apostrophe, or in a possessive - enclose your string in double quotation marks, as in !extract -f "Jack's command" books 393.

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