Find Parameters

The Find Objects dialog contains tabs that let you precisely specify your search criteria.

Name and Location Tab

The Name & Location tab provides basic search parameters:

Parameter

Description

Look in

Specifies the scope of the search. You can select the entire workspace, a project, folder, model, or package.

Model type

Specifies the type of PowerDesigner model to search. The options available in this list are affected by your choice in the Look in field.

Object type

Specifies the type of model objects to be searched. The options available in this list are affected by your choice in the Model type field.

Include shortcuts

Instructs PowerDesigner to include object shortcuts that match your criteria in the results.

Name

Specifies the object name to search for. You can use the following special characters:
  • * - none to any number of characters. For example:
    • W* finds "Work" and "Washington"
    • *96 finds "01/11/96" and "26/08/96"
  • ? – exactly one character. For example:
    • *_emp_??? finds "Div_emp_idn" but not "Div_emp_ident"
  • \ - escapes *, ?, or \. For example:
    • \?\\ - finds ?\
  • true/false - Boolean value (True is when the check box is selected)

Code

Code of the object. You can type the exact code of the object or use a string expression.

Case sensitive

Specifies that the results must match the case of the criteria.

User and Date Tab

The User & Date tab lets you constrain your search based on when and by whom the object was created and modified:

Parameter

Description

Created

Enables searching on creation parameters. You can search against the name of the user who created the object and against the creation date using the following options:
  • Before the specified date

  • After the specified date

  • Between the two specified dates

  • In the specified number of days since today

Modified

Enables searching on modification parameters.

Advanced Tab

The Advanced tab allows you to specify additional search constraints for each property of the selected object type in the following format:

Parameter

Description

U (Used)

Specifies a property on which to apply the search. Select this option for a property without entering an expression to find objects for which the property is null.

Operator

Specifies an operator to use for the search. Click in the Operator column to display the list of available operators.

Expression

Specifies a string expression to search for. For detailed information about the operators and the expression syntax, see Defining a Filter Expression.



Note: If you do not select an object type on the Name & Location tab, then you can only search on the name and code properties on this tab.

Glossary Tab

The Glossary tab allows you to specify additional search constraints in relation to glossary objects (see The Glossary) with which objects may be associated:

Parameter

Description

Search by

Specifies that the objects searched for must be associated with a glossary object whose name contains the specified string.

Search Range

Specifies the glossary objects to search on. You can select one or more of Keywords, Terms [default], Related Terms, and Synonyms.

Case sensitive

Specifies that the search string must match the case of the glossary object.