Find Property

Searching for model elements using any number of properties.

Context

You can use the Find dialog to search for model elements which fulfill certain properties. This includes properties and stereotype properties. You can also limit the search to one element type.

For example, you can search for Processes (element type) with Visibility (property name) Public (property value).

If the value of a property is a string, you can define a placeholder instead of a specific value. To do this, enter any text between two $ signs, e.g. $Name$ for the name of a property. You can then specify a value for the placeholder when you run the search. This approach is advantageous when you are combining multiple properties and want to save the search and call it from the menu later.

Beispiel

Element type: Class, Property Stereotype: implementation, Property Name: "$Name$".

When you run the search, a dialog will appear requesting a value for Name. You then have the option to search for classes of a particular stereotype.

How to proceed

Select the Start>Browse>Find>Find Property command.

The Find dialog appears and the Find Property tab is activated.
Select the type of the element to find from the Find Element Type drop-down list.
Deactivate the Itemize only instantiated Types check box if you do not want to constrain the drop-down list of element types to the element types used in the model. The search will not return any hits for these element types but it may be useful if you want to save the search without it being linked to the current model.
In the Conditions group you decide how the individual conditions are combined. Activate the appropriate radio button. In the table, each row represents a condition. Using the and buttons you can add or remove additional conditions.
- Name: Select the desired property.
- Operator: The available operators depend on the type of property.
- Value: Select the desired value or enter one. The range of values depends on the type of property.
If you want to constrain the search to selected elements and their successors, e.g. a package, then activate the Only within the selected elements check box in the Search options group.

If you do not do this, then the whole model is searched through.
If you want the search hits to replace the previous content in the result region, then activate the Overwrite result region check box in the Search options group.

If you do not do this, then the results are added to the previous results.
Click on Find.

The dialog box remains open to continue your search or add new entries. You can continue to work normally in the model while the search is being carried out.