filter_files: Filter Files by Pattern and Content Type

In seekr: Extract Matching Lines from Matching Files

Filter Files by Pattern and Content Type

Description

Filters a character vector of file paths using a user-defined pattern and additional content-based criteria to ensure only likely text files are retained.

This function applies multiple filters:

• A regex-based path filter (if provided).

• Exclusion of files located within .git folders.

• Exclusion of files with known binary or non-text extensions.

• A fallback scan for embedded null bytes to detect binary content in ambiguous files.

The function returns a filtered character vector of file paths likely to be valid text files.

Usage

filter_files(files, filter, negate, n = 1000L)

Arguments

files	A character vector of files to search (only for seek_in()).
filter	Optional. A regular expression pattern used to filter file paths before reading. If NULL, all text files are considered.
negate	Logical. If TRUE, files matching the filter pattern are excluded instead of included. Useful to skip files based on name or extension.
n	The number of bytes to read for binary detection in files with unknown extensions. Defaults to 1000.

Value

A character vector of file paths identified as potential text files. If no matching files are found, an informative error is thrown.

seekr documentation built on June 8, 2025, 11:13 a.m.