> And of course one can then > (pipe) the result to a text file and
> print out a luverly (sic) directory listing.

Ah. The nostalgia of it all ! :-)

Even eg

            dir /s | find /I "BILL" | find /I "FRED" | find "2004"  > 
C:\BillFred

to find any files with Bill and Fred anywhere in the file name in any 
order with files dated 2004 (or with 2004 anywhere in dir output) and 
result saved in specified file. Add as many | "FIND"s as desired and 
even a  > Filexxx at the end to save the result.

And all sorts of other mixes. Add grep and the fun really begins. The 
above is far slower than eg dir *Bill*fred* (as this involves no 
intermediate storage and is done entirely within the dir code by 
whatever means bill's boys have chosen to use) but the former is far 
more flexible as it allows name fragments in any order and inclusion 
of eg date information and even file size and time information, should 
one be so desperate as to need to do this ;-).

eg        for a totally contrived example

            dir /s  |  find "2004  01" |find "p.m." | find "JPG"  | 
find "    5,"

Find all JPG files taken in 2004 between 1.00 and 1.59 pm with size of 
5.xxx megabytes.
Inflexible, demanding of correct format (eg 2 spaces between 2004 and 
01), and worse - also occasionally really useful when you want 
something unusual.

Better approach is usually to save a directory listing to a file and 
then post process it to your hearts content with the language of your 
choice. But for quick and dirty searches tricks like the above can be 
useful.

dir  *xxx*yyy* adds to the armoury. (to mine anyway).


        RM



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