# How to copy results from a search? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Created:** [September 27, 2017, 3:49pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/how-to-copy-results-from-a-search/15483 "2017-09-27T15:49:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mrogers](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/mrogers/32/4110_2.png) [@mrogers](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mrogers)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2017, 3:49pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/how-to-copy-results-from-a-search/15483/1 "2017-09-27T15:49:51Z")
I’m trying to use the search feature to see where things are and then manually replace depending on the circumstance of each find. It acts like I can copy the search results… but when pasted its some serialized object or something. See below: com.inductiveautomation.factorypmi.designer.search.searchobjects.StandardPropertySearchObject@151a765e com.inductiveautomation.factorypmi.designer.search.searchobjects.StandardPropertySearchObject@151a765e com.inductiveautomation.factorypmi.designer.search.searchobjects.StandardPropertySearchObject@151a765e Thats just for one line… its the same thing three times per line, which sorta makes sense if you assume the object represents the whole row. I’m really not sure how this was allowed to happen, in what context is this useful? Anyway, does anyone know if theres a way to make this into useful information? Even if it has to be through pasting it into a text area in Ignition and picking the values out from there, I don’t mind. This would save a lot of time so I’d love to get a resolution to this. ---
**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 4:11pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/how-to-copy-results-from-a-search/15483/2 "2017-09-28T16:11:46Z")
The results you can copy/paste are just the string representation of the underlying object, and there’s no way to drill into the results on the actual find/replace pane itself, unfortunately. ---
**Author:** ![mrogers](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/mrogers/32/4110_2.png) [@mrogers](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mrogers)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2017, 11:40pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/how-to-copy-results-from-a-search/15483/3 "2017-11-02T23:40:41Z")
Is there any way to reconstruct the object from the string if its a string representation of the object? That would be very helpful. ---
**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 3:30pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/how-to-copy-results-from-a-search/15483/4 "2017-11-03T15:30:50Z")
The string you get by copying is just the Java classname (of the ‘search result’ object), and a pointer at the object in memory. It’s not really something you can get anything useful from directly. ---
**Author:** ![mrogers](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/mrogers/32/4110_2.png) [@mrogers](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mrogers)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 4:29pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/how-to-copy-results-from-a-search/15483/5 "2017-11-03T16:29:26Z")
Is there any way to get a reference to the actual object then? So that if, in the same designer session that I do the original search, I could paste those results into some script and get references to the object so I could get more information about it and export it some other way? ---
**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 5:23pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/how-to-copy-results-from-a-search/15483/6 "2017-11-03T17:23:01Z")
Unfortunately not: >