created: 20130827080000000
list: [[Introduction to filter notation]] [[Filter Syntax]]
modified: 20230710074511095
tags: Reference Concepts TableOfContents
title: Filters
type: text/vnd.tiddlywiki

\define openAdvancedSearch()
<$action-setfield $tiddler="$:/state/tab--1498284803" text="$:/core/ui/AdvancedSearch/Filter"/>
<$action-setfield $tiddler="$:/temp/advancedsearch/input" text="[tag[Filters]]"/>
<$action-setfield $tiddler="$:/temp/advancedsearch" text="[tag[Filters]]"/>
\end

You can think of TiddlyWiki as a database in which the records are tiddlers. A database typically provides a way of discovering which records match a given pattern, and in ~TiddlyWiki this is done with filters.

A <<.def filter>> is a concise notation for selecting a particular [[set of tiddlers|Title Selection]], known as its <<.def "output">>. Whenever ~TiddlyWiki encounters a filter, it calculates the output. Further work can then be done with just those tiddlers, such as [[counting|CountWidget]] or [[listing|ListWidget]] them.

The following example passes a filter to the <<.mlink list-links>> macro. It displays a list of all tiddlers using the <<.olink2 tag tag>> <<.word Filters>>:

<<wikitext-example-without-html """<<list-links "[tag[Filters]]">>""" >>

A filter output can change as tiddlers are added and deleted in the wiki. ~TiddlyWiki recalculates on the fly, automatically updating any filter-based counts or lists as well.

''Find out more:''

* <$linkcatcher message="tm-navigate" actions=<<openAdvancedSearch>> >[[Advanced Search|$:/AdvancedSearch]]</$linkcatcher> -- has a <<.advancedsearch-tab Filter>> tab that makes it easy to experiment with filters.
* [[Filtered Transclusions|Transclusion in WikiText]] -- if you want to use filter results in your text
* [[Filter Syntax History]] -- if you are curious why the filter syntax is the way it is