Finds a string in the database.

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Searches through all or a selection of database tables for a given string, Outputs colorized references to the string.

Defaults to searching through all tables registered to $wpdb. On multisite, this default is limited to the tables for the current site.

OPTIONS #OPTIONS

<search>

String to search for. The search is case-insensitive by default.

[<tables>…]

One or more tables to search through for the string.

[--network]

Search through all the tables registered to $wpdb in a multisite install.

[--all-tables-with-prefix]

Search through all tables that match the registered table prefix, even if not registered on $wpdb. On one hand, sometimes plugins use tables without registering them to $wpdb. On another hand, this could return tables you don’t expect. Overrides –network.

[--all-tables]

Search through ALL tables in the database, regardless of the prefix, and even if not registered on $wpdb. Overrides –network and –all-tables-with-prefix.

[--before_context=<num>]

Number of characters to display before the match.
---
default: 40
---

[--after_context=<num>]

Number of characters to display after the match.
---
default: 40
---

[--regex]

Runs the search as a regular expression (without delimiters). The search becomes case-sensitive (i.e. no PCRE flags are added). Delimiters must be escaped if they occur in the expression.

[--regex-flags=<regex-flags>]

Pass PCRE modifiers to the regex search (e.g. ‘i’ for case-insensitivity).

[--regex-delimiter=<regex-delimiter>]

The delimiter to use for the regex. It must be escaped if it appears in the search string. The default value is the result of chr(1).

[--table_column_once]

Output the ‘table:column’ line once before all matching row lines in the table column rather than before each matching row.

[--one_line]

Place the ‘table:column’ output on the same line as the row id and match (‘table:column:id:match’). Overrides –table_column_once.

[--matches_only]

Only output the string matches (including context). No ‘table:column’s or row ids are outputted.

[--stats]

Output stats on the number of matches found, time taken, tables/columns/rows searched, tables skipped.

[--table_column_color=<color_code>]

Percent color code to use for the ‘table:column’ output. For a list of available percent color codes, see below. Default ‘%G’ (bright green).

[--id_color=<color_code>]

Percent color code to use for the row id output. For a list of available percent color codes, see below. Default ‘%Y’ (bright yellow).

[--match_color=<color_code>]

Percent color code to use for the match (unless both before and after context are 0, when no color code is used). For a list of available percent color codes, see below. Default ‘%3%k’ (black on a mustard background).

The percent color codes available are:

They can be concatenated. For instance, the default match color of black on a mustard (dark yellow) background %3%k can be made black on a bright yellow background with %Y%0%8.

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EXAMPLES #EXAMPLES

# Search through the database for the 'wordpress-develop' string
$ wp db search wordpress-develop
wp_options:option_value
1:http://wordpress-develop.dev
wp_options:option_value
1:http://example.com/foo
    ...

# Search through a multisite database on the subsite 'foo' for the 'example.com' string
$ wp db search example.com --url=example.com/foo
wp_2_comments:comment_author_url
1:http://example.com/
wp_2_options:option_value
    ...

# Search through the database for the 'https?://' regular expression, printing stats.
$ wp db search 'https?://' --regex --stats
wp_comments:comment_author_url
1:https://wordpress.org/
    ...
Success: Found 99146 matches in 10.752s (10.559s searching). Searched 12 tables, 53 columns, 1358907 rows. 1 table skipped: wp_term_relationships.

# SQL search database table 'wp_options' where 'option_name' match 'foo'
wp db query 'SELECT * FROM wp_options WHERE option_name like "%foo%"' --skip-column-names
+----+--------------+--------------------------------+-----+
| 98 | foo_options  | a:1:{s:12:"_multiwidget";i:1;} | yes |
| 99 | foo_settings | a:0:{}                         | yes |
+----+--------------+--------------------------------+-----+

# SQL search and delete records from database table 'wp_options' where 'option_name' match 'foo'
wp db query "DELETE from wp_options where option_id in ($(wp db query "SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(option_id SEPARATOR ',') from wp_options where option_name like '%foo%';" --silent --skip-column-names))"

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GLOBAL PARAMETERS #GLOBAL PARAMETERS

These global parameters have the same behavior across all commands and affect how WP-CLI interacts with WordPress.

Command documentation is regenerated at every release. To add or update an example, please submit a pull request against the corresponding part of the codebase.