findstr.exe is not working - windows

Question

My system has findstr.exe but when I try to execute it, it gives me the following error
FINDSTR: Bad command line
Tried so many things but unable to fix.
I need to use regex in my batch script.
Any other suggestion?

Answer 1

You need to at least give it some strings to look for. That error message is the one you get if it doesn't think you've provided a search string (everything else is optional):
C:\Documents and Settings\Pax> findstr /?
Searches for strings in files.
FINDSTR [/B] [/E] [/L] [/R] [/S] [/I] [/X] [/V] [/N] [/M] [/O] [/P] [/F:file]
[/C:string] [/G:file] [/D:dir list] [/A:color attributes] [/OFF[LINE]]
strings [[drive:][path]filename[ ...]]
/B Matches pattern if at the beginning of a line.
/E Matches pattern if at the end of a line.
/L Uses search strings literally.
/R Uses search strings as regular expressions.
/S Searches for matching files in the current directory and all
subdirectories.
/I Specifies that the search is not to be case-sensitive.
/X Prints lines that match exactly.
/V Prints only lines that do not contain a match.
/N Prints the line number before each line that matches.
/M Prints only the filename if a file contains a match.
/O Prints character offset before each matching line.
/P Skip files with non-printable characters.
/OFF[LINE] Do not skip files with offline attribute set.
/A:attr Specifies color attribute with two hex digits. See "color /?"
/F:file Reads file list from the specified file(/ stands for console).
/C:string Uses specified string as a literal search string.
/G:file Gets search strings from the specified file(/ stands for console).
/D:dir Search a semicolon delimited list of directories
strings Text to be searched for.
[drive:][path]filename
Specifies a file or files to search.
Use spaces to separate multiple search strings unless the argument is prefixed
with /C. For example, 'FINDSTR "hello there" x.y' searches for "hello" or
"there" in file x.y. 'FINDSTR /C:"hello there" x.y' searches for
"hello there" in file x.y.
Regular expression quick reference:
. Wildcard: any character
* Repeat: zero or more occurances of previous character or class
^ Line position: beginning of line
$ Line position: end of line
[class] Character class: any one character in set
[^class] Inverse class: any one character not in set
[x-y] Range: any characters within the specified range
\x Escape: literal use of metacharacter x
\ Word position: end of word
For full information on FINDSTR regular expressions refer to the online Command
Reference.
For example, this shows how you can use regular expressions:
C:\Documents and Settings\Pax> type qq.cmd
#setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion
#echo off
set startdir=%cd%
set temp=%startdir%
set folder=
:loop
if not "x%temp:~-1%"=="x/" (
set folder=!temp:~-1!!folder!
set temp=!temp:~1,-1!
goto :loop
)
echo.startdir = %startdir%
echo.folder = %folder%
endlocal
C:\Documents and Settings\Pax> findstr d.r% qq.cmd
set temp=%startdir%
echo.startdir = %startdir%
echo.folder = %folder%
C:\Documents and Settings\Pax> findstr
FINDSTR: Bad command line

Answer 2

For anyone else who is struggling with this, try this simple syntax for a start:
findstr /s /i hello *.*
(ignore case, search all subdirectories in current folder)

Answer 3

Of course, you didn't specify any command after FINDSTR command. Type FINDSTR /? for help.
This an example how to use FINDSTR command:
FINDSTR /R /C:"your_regex" filename.txt

Answer 4

That's what findstr says when you give it no command line arguments. Try
findstr/?