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How Do I Search for a Filename Containing a Specific String Of Characters?

I want to find one file that I know contains the string “tps” in its name. When I use the Finder search utility (command-F) with the criteria “Name” + “Contains”, I get unexpected results. The search returns all filenames containing “t.ps” and “t-ps”. For example:

Form-t-ps.pages
Plant.psd

I have a huge amount of psd files, so the search results contain all psd files with the filename ending with the letter “t”.

Why this behaviour and how do I fix it?

—–
Jean-Claude

Comments: 3 Responses to “How Do I Search for a Filename Containing a Specific String Of Characters?”

    4 years ago

    Are you actually selecting "Name" as a criteria with "contains" and then "tps" as the text? I just tried it, and sure enough it does seem to treat t.ps and tps the same.

    The way to do it is to just type "name:tps" in the search field. No criteria needed. Just type at that in the Search box at the top right corner of a Finder window. This will only find "tps" and not "t.ps" or anything else.

    Jean-Claude
    4 years ago

    Thank you. Still seems like an odd behaviour though!

    4 years ago

    Jean-Claude: My guess is that one simply looks only at letters and discounts punctuation. The other is more literal.

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