Filter files

Filter files with the extension flt can be used in SuperMemo to globally process texts in the collection. For example, it is more convenient to do multiple replace text operations with filters that to do it manually with Search and replace on the registry menu.

As filters are now less often used, filter files in SuperMemo 18 do not support the complete filter file specification from SuperMemo 6 and SuperMemo 7. You will mostly want to use filter files in the following circumstances:

1. replacing a large number of texts with selected strings in the collection
2. removing comments and other delimited texts from the collection

Filter files are text files than can be edited manually. They are made of sections such as [REPLACE], [DELIMITERS], [CUT], etc. Each section contains a list of arguments placed in separate lines. For example, the [REPLACE] section will contain pairs of strings: strings to be replaced and string to be put in place of replaced strings.

This is an exemplary contents of a filter file (see below for the effect of such a filter on a collection):

[DELIMITERS]
< > cut
{ } cut
[REPLACE]
histol: histology:
physiol: physiology:
mem: ''
endocr: ''

If you open the text registry with Search : Texts, choose Search : Apply filter on the registry menu and select such a file, the following changes will be made to texts throughout the collection:

1. all texts delimited with angle brackets will be removed
2. all texts delimited with braces will be removed
3. texts like histol: and physiol: will be replaced with histology: and physiology: respectively
4. texts like mem: and endocr: will be removed

You can also use filters with Edit : Edit text : Apply filter from the main menu.

Filter files are by default stored in the [FILTERS] subfolder