Fast Search to see if a String Exists in Large Files with Delphi

Question

I have a FindFile routine in my program which will list files, but if the \"Containing Text\" field is filled in, then it should only list files containing that text.

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Answer 1

If you are looking for text string searches, look for the Boyer-Moore search algorithm. It uses memory mapped files and a really fast search engine. The is some delphi units around that contain implementations of this algorithm.

To give you an idea of the speed - i currently search through 10-20MB files and it takes in the order of milliseconds.

Oh just read that it might be unicode - not sure if it supports that - but definately look down this path.