'Declaration
 
Public Overloads Function Search( _
   ByVal sheetIndex As Integer, _
   ByVal searchString As String, _
   ByVal caseSensitive As Boolean, _
   ByVal exactMatch As Boolean, _
   ByVal alternateSearch As Boolean, _
   ByVal useWildcards As Boolean, _
   ByVal includeCellText As Boolean, _
   ByVal includeNotes As Boolean, _
   ByVal includeTags As Boolean, _
   ByVal searchAsBlockRange As Boolean, _
   ByVal startRowIndex As Integer, _
   ByVal startColumnIndex As Integer, _
   ByVal endRowIndex As Integer, _
   ByVal endColumnIndex As Integer, _
   ByRef foundRowIndex As Integer, _
   ByRef foundColumnIndex As Integer _
) As SearchFoundFlags

'Usage
 
Dim instance As FpSpread
Dim sheetIndex As Integer
Dim searchString As String
Dim caseSensitive As Boolean
Dim exactMatch As Boolean
Dim alternateSearch As Boolean
Dim useWildcards As Boolean
Dim includeCellText As Boolean
Dim includeNotes As Boolean
Dim includeTags As Boolean
Dim searchAsBlockRange As Boolean
Dim startRowIndex As Integer
Dim startColumnIndex As Integer
Dim endRowIndex As Integer
Dim endColumnIndex As Integer
Dim foundRowIndex As Integer
Dim foundColumnIndex As Integer
Dim value As SearchFoundFlags
 
value = instance.Search(sheetIndex, searchString, caseSensitive, exactMatch, alternateSearch, useWildcards, includeCellText, includeNotes, includeTags, searchAsBlockRange, startRowIndex, startColumnIndex, endRowIndex, endColumnIndex, foundRowIndex, foundColumnIndex)

public SearchFoundFlags Search( 
   int sheetIndex,
   string searchString,
   bool caseSensitive,
   bool exactMatch,
   bool alternateSearch,
   bool useWildcards,
   bool includeCellText,
   bool includeNotes,
   bool includeTags,
   bool searchAsBlockRange,
   int startRowIndex,
   int startColumnIndex,
   int endRowIndex,
   int endColumnIndex,
   ref int foundRowIndex,
   ref int foundColumnIndex
)

Parameters

sheetIndex

Sheet index on which to search

searchString

String for which to search

caseSensitive

Whether the search considers the case of the letters in the search string

exactMatch

Whether the search considers only an exact match

alternateSearch

Whether the search goes by alternate coordinates of column, row (instead of row, column)

useWildcards

Whether the search considers wildcard characters (*, ?) in the search string

includeCellText

Whether the search includes the content in the cell

includeNotes

Whether the search includes the content in the cell notes

includeTags

Whether the search includes the content in the cell tags or their string representations

searchAsBlockRange

Specifies whether to search the specified block of cells only

startRowIndex

Row Index at which to start

startColumnIndex

Column index at which to start

endRowIndex

Row Index at which to end

endColumnIndex

Column index at which to end

foundRowIndex

Row Index at which match is found

foundColumnIndex

Column index at which match is found

Return Value

The more recently added search methods return a SearchFoundFlag, and not simply a text string, because the search match might be found in the cell notes or the cell tags. You can search optionally any or all of the data cells, the cell notes, or the cell tags or any combination. It starts at the cell location specified (with startRowIndex and startColumnIndex) and goes to the specified end (endRowIndex and endRowIndex) until the string match is found. In addition you can limit the left-most column, right-most column, top-most row, and bottom-most row of the search by specifying a block range.

If cells are searched, this search method searches all the cells that contain data that can be represented as a string by the Text property of that cell, and that includes hidden and locked cells.

This search method checks the formatted string, that is the Text in the cell, not the Value. If tags are searched, it only searches tags that are String data type.

For a hierarchy of sheets, this method only searches cells in a parent sheet. To search child sheets, you would need to perform a separate search of each child sheet.

The searchAsBlockRange will limit the search to the range as if it is a block of cells. If the search starts with row 0, column 1 and ends at row 3, column 3 then column 0 would not be searched and columns after 3 would not be searched. With searchAsBlockRange set to true, the default search will go from left to right first and then top to bottom. An alternate search would go from top to bottom and then left to right.

If searchAsBlockRange is false then the search will include all cells in the sheet after the specified cell (including cells not in the range).

Reference

FpSpread Class
FpSpread Members
Overload List
SearchFoundFlags Enumeration
Customizing User Searching of Data