Filter

This command scans lines of text in a window or file and if any of them contain matchtext, they are written out to another window or file which you can then use.

/filter [-asdfkwxnpriocteubglLz] [n-n2] [c s] <infile | dialog id> <outfile | dialog id | alias> [alias] <matchtext>

The explanation of all switches at first:

Switch	Meaning
a	sorts filtered lines by calling the optional [alias]. The alias is passed two lines in $1 and $2, it must compare these and return -1, 0, or 1 to indicate relative sort order of these lines to each other.
s	makes the status window the infile.
d	makes the single message window the infile.
f	tells mIRC that the infile is actually a file.
k	indicates that you have specified an <alias> as the output instead of a window name. The alias will be called with the result of each filtered line.
w	tells mIRC that the infile is actually a window.
x	excludes matching lines.
n	prefixes lines with a line number.
p	wraps the text output in a custom window.
r	specifies the range of lines n to n2 for filtering.
i	indicates that you have provided a [dialog id] custom dialog control as the input.
o	indicates that you have provided a [dialog id] custom dialog control as the output.
c	clears the output window/file before writing to it.
t	sorts the output based on [c s], column C using character S as the columns separator.
e	specifies a descending sort.
u	specifies a numeric sort.
b	strips BURK codes when matching text.
g	indicates that matchtext is a regular expression.
l	filters from the side-listbox in the first window.
L	filters from the side-listbox in the second window
z	retains line colors when filtering between custom windows.

Note that you can filter blank lines by specifying $crlf for the matchtext.

The $filtered identifier is filled with the number of matches found, if any.

Some important facts about /filter:

• If you specify an window as output, it has to be created first. mIRC will not create one. Contrary to that, mIRC will create files, if they do not exist.
• If no matchtext is specified, all lines with be copied.
• The specied windows / files must be in the correct order (-fw copies from file to window, -wf from window to file).

Example

For some of the examples, you will need:

• a custom window. Open it with /window -e @filtertest
• a text file. Make a blank one with /write -c filtertest.txt

Simple copying from files and windows

; This will copy your entire mIRC.ini in the @filtertest window.
filter -fw mIRC.ini @filtertest
; creates another window called @filtertest2, then copies only lines from @filtertest that begin with a open square bracket [.
window @filtertest2 | filter -ww @filtertest @filtertest2 [*

; Copies the entire versions.txt to your filtertest window, with clearing it before.
filter -cfw versions.txt @filtertest
; Copies all lines with change in it to @filtertest, with clearing it before again.
filter -cww @filtertest @filtertest *change*

Filtering lines

; This will filter every line in the Status Window that ends with "Unknown command." into a file called unknown.txt
filter -sf unknown.txt *Unknown command.

; Loads all lines from versions.txt into the Status Window
filter -fs versions.txt anytext

; Filter only lines 56 to 87 of versions.txt to the Status Window
filter -rfs 56-87 versions.txt anytext

Excluding text

; Filters all lines from #help.script to our @filtertest window but exclude lines that contain "you suck" 
filter -cxww #help.script @filtertest *you suck*

; Remove all lines from #help.script.log that start with -AnnoyingNoticer-.
; Note that ff tells mIRC that we want to filter the files, not the channel window.
filter -cxff #help.script.log #help.script.log -AnnoyingNoticer-*

Filtering Dialogs

; Save the contents of a listbox ID 3 in a dialog called "jukebox" to favorites.txt, making sure the text file is cleared before outputting to it
filter -cif jukebox 3 favorites.txt

; Example 28: Another similar song list, this time we don't want to save the songs that are in  C:\Music\Awful\
filter -xcif jukebox 3 favorites.txt *C:\Music\Awful\*

Filtering nicklist

; Filter the nicklist in the channel #help.script to a custom window called @#help.script_filter
filter -lw #help.script @#help.script_filter

Filtering with custom alias

; lets make a little alias comparing two numbers
alias sortnumber {
 return $iif($1 > $2, 1, $iif($1 == $2,0,-1))
}

; now let's fill a window with 1000 random numbers
var %i = 1
; lets loop from 1 to 1000
while (%i <= 1000) {
 ; and add a random number to the window
 aline @filtertest $rand(1,999999)
 inc %i
}
; lets make a second custom window
window @filtertest2
; now lets sort all the numbers and put them to the new window
filter -aww @filtertest @filtertest2 sortnumber

Filtering a scoreboard file

Lets say this is our scoreboard.txt file:

Albie 666 Ave IT :f
Dana 123 I'm the queen!
Q 690 I love my 69...0
God 34 I wish I was Albie
G 1 I wish i was dana :<
Fishbot 17 Fish go moo.

First is the nick, then their score, followed by their comment.

filter -tffceu 2 32 scoreboard.txt scoreboard.txt

The output now looks like this, with the highest score on top (Q with 690) and the lowest on the bottem (G with 1):

Q 690 I love my 69...0
Albie 666 Ave IT :f
Dana 123 I'm the queen!
God 34 I wish I was Albie
Fishbot 17 Fish go moo.
G 1 I wish i was dana :<

Explanation

• The -t flag means that filter will sort using the options 2 32. The second token, delimited by ascii 32 (space)
• The -ff flags mean the input and output is both scoreboard.txt, which is a filename.
• The -c clears the output target before writing the output.
• The -eu mean sort numerically (u) in descending order (e).