# Filtering on Custom Columns
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/filtering-on-custom-columns/9268
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [November 6, 2009, 9:36am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/filtering-on-custom-columns/9268 "2009-11-06T09:36:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@gvm](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/gvm)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2009, 9:36am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/filtering-on-custom-columns/9268/1 "2009-11-06T09:36:56Z")
Is it now possible to filter based on the content of a custom column with the new filtering system?
I did find a previous question that asked the same thing about the "old" filter system ( Get custom field to show in Filter 'Field:', V2.41b), to which the answer was "no", but I wondered if its possible with the new filtering methods.
Thanks,
gvm
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### Author:  [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2009, 9:42am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/filtering-on-custom-columns/9268/2 "2009-11-06T09:42:57Z")
Yes, check out the help file or press F1 when your cursor is in the filter edit field.
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### Author:  [@gvm](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/gvm)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2009, 10:11am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/filtering-on-custom-columns/9268/3 "2009-11-06T10:11:07Z")
Hi Dano,
I looked there before posting (and after your post), but I can't find any mention of custom _columns_ (I don't mean custom _fields_). Could you be more specific?
What I'm trying to achieve is that I have a custom column that shows whether the Title field is a substring of the file name (this is for use in cleaning up after the cut-sort-undo writing to the wrong file problem). The column is called "TitleMatch", and has a value of:
> $if($eql($lower(%\_filename%),$replace($lower(%\_filename%),$lower(%title%),)),UNMATCHED,MATCHED)
Obviously, this is not the sort of data that I'd like to be permanently stored as a tag, but just want it to be displayed and updated in real-time, as a custom column. This is working fine.
What I'd like to do is to then filter on this value, but the filter expression:
> "%TitleMatch%" IS UNMATCHED
doesn't work.
I can see reasons why custom columns need to be handled differently in "normal" expressions (circular references, etc) but these wouldn't apply to using them in filter expressions.
Thanks,
gvm
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### Author:  [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2009, 10:16am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/filtering-on-custom-columns/9268/4 "2009-11-06T10:16:31Z")
The content of a custom column cannot be referenced. But you can repeat your column in the filter:
"$if($eql($lower(%\_filename%),$replace($lower(%\_filename%),$lower(%title%),)),UNMATCHED,MATCHED)" IS UNMATCHED
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### Author:  [@gvm](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/gvm)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2009, 10:21am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/filtering-on-custom-columns/9268/5 "2009-11-06T10:21:02Z")
Yes, I'd already done that, but it's a little cumbersome. I was hoping there was some syntax for using the custom column name.
Thanks anyway.
gvm
[I just realised I'd misread the link that I referenced in my original posting above - It was referring to custom fields not columns. That might have caused some confusion - sorry about that.]
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:21pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/filtering-on-custom-columns/9268/6 "2026-02-09T12:21:55Z")