in a hashtable it's set up like: tablename->itemname->data
$hfind() returns matches for itemnames only
$hfind().data returns matches for data only
I think when you are searching with nopepad++ it's looking at all occurances
for ex:
[hasttablename]
summer!someident@host.com=summer winter fall spring
notepad++ would see the item and data where as $hfind either looks at the data or the itemname
