Simulink®

The Finder

About the Finder

The Finder locates blocks, signals, states, or other objects in a model. To display the Finder, select Find from the Simulink^® Model Editor's Edit menu. The Find dialog box appears.

Use the Filter options (see Filter Options) and Search criteria (see Search Criteria) panels to specify the characteristics of the object you want to find. Next, if you have more than one system or subsystem open, select the system or subsystem where you want the search to begin from the Start in system list. Finally, click the Find button. Simulink searches the selected system for objects that meet the criteria you have specified.

Any objects that satisfy the criteria appear in the results panel at the bottom of the dialog box.

You can display an object by double-clicking its entry in the search results list. Simulink opens the system or subsystem that contains the object (if necessary) and highlights and selects the object. To sort the results list, click any of the buttons at the top of each column. For example, to sort the results by object type, click the Type button. Clicking a button once sorts the list in ascending order, clicking it twice sorts it in descending order. To display an object's parameters or properties, select the object in the list. Then press the right mouse button and select Parameter or Properties from the resulting context menu.

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Filter Options

The Filter options panel allows you to specify the kinds of objects to look for and where to search for them.

Object type list

The object type list lists the types of objects that Simulink can find. By clearing a type, you can exclude it from the Finder's search.

Look inside masked subsystem

Selecting this option causes Simulink to look for objects inside masked subsystems.

Look inside linked systems

Selecting this option causes Simulink to look for objects inside subsystems linked to libraries.

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Search Criteria

The Search criteria panel allows you to specify the criteria that objects must meet to satisfy your search request.

Basic

The Basic panel allows you to search for an object whose name and, optionally, dialog parameters match a specified text string. Enter the search text in the panel's Find what field. To display previous search text, select the drop-down list button next to the Find what field. To reenter text, click it in the drop-down list. Select Search block dialog parameters if you want dialog parameters to be included in the search.

Advanced

The Advanced panel allows you to specify a set of as many as seven properties that an object must have to satisfy your search request.

To specify a property, enter its name in one of the cells in the Property column of the Advanced pane or select the property from the cell's property list. To display the list, select the down arrow button next to the cell. Next enter the value of the property in the Value column next to the property name. When you enter a property name, the Finder checks the check box next to the property name in the Select column. This indicates that the property is to be included in the search. If you want to exclude the property, clear the check box.

Match case

Select this option if you want Simulink to consider case when matching search text against the value of an object property.

Other match options

Next to the Match case option is a list that specifies other match options that you can select.

• Match whole word

  Specifies a match if the property value and the search text are identical except possibly for case.

• Contains word

  Specifies a match if a property value includes the search text.

• Regular expression

  Specifies that the search text should be treated as a regular expression when matched against property values. The following characters have special meanings when they appear in a regular expression.

  Character	Meaning
  ^	Matches start of string.
  $	Matches end of string.
  .	Matches any character.
  \	Escape character. Causes the next character to have its ordinary meaning. For example, the regular expression \.. matches .a and .2 and any other two-character string that begins with a period.
  *	Matches zero or more instances of the preceding character. For example, ba* matches b, ba, baa, etc.
  +	Matches one or more instances of the preceding character. For example, ba+ matches ba, baa, etc.
  []	Indicates a set of characters that can match the current character. A hyphen can be used to indicate a range of characters. For example, [a-zA-Z0-9_]+ matches foo_bar1 but not foo$bar. A ^ indicates a match when the current character is not one of the following characters. For example, [^0-9] matches any character that is not a digit.
  \w	Matches a word character (same as [a-z_A-Z0-9]).
  \W	Matches a nonword character (same as [^a-z_A-Z0-9]).
  \d	Matches a digit (same as [0-9]).
  \D	Matches a nondigit (same as [^0-9]).
  \s	Matches white space (same as [ \t\r\n\f]).
  \S	Matches nonwhite space (same as [^ \t\r\n\f]).
  \<WORD\>	Matches WORD where WORD is any string of word characters surrounded by white space.

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The Model Explorer

The Model Browser