How to get counts and a summary listing of a matching term over multiple matched documents

DEVONthink
1

I did a search for “error100” and DT found 100 matching files.

Now I want to:

  1. Get a single file for the client showing all the matched lines from each of the 100 files.
  2. Get an overall count of how many matches DT found (from all 100 files).

However, the moment I click on more than 1 document, DT no longer shows any matches at all. There is a “merge documents” menu option, but that’s not what I want to do.

My text editor, BBEdit, can do what I want, but all these log files are now in DT and I’m assuming DT is powerful enough to do these two tasks above also.

Thanks in advance for how to do this! :slight_smile:

2

Take a look at Script: Search results with context.

It doesn’t include count of matches but this could be added.

3

So, no built in way in DT to do this?

4

No

5

I’ll use BBEdit. It has regex BUILT In and does great reporting. I’m surprised and a bit disappointed that DT doesn’t do this as I would consider what I’m trying to do a basic “user goal”. :frowning:

Appreciate your kind reply.

Thank you.

6

What is „great reporting“?

7

Do you use BBEdit? It has the ability to export lists of file finds. It’s not as good as “File Locator Pro” for Windows, but it’s amazing anyway. Probably my most used utility. I guess “great reporting” was a bit too strong. :slight_smile:
Thanks.

8

Yes. But BBEdit won’t give you a list of DEVONthink search results.

9

If you decided to import the records (instead of indexing them) then it’s not possible to search them with BBEdit. You would first have to index them.

10

Right, DT is not the right solution for my simple use-case. I have moved all the log files out of DT and won’t use DT for this purpose. Thanks.