Using the Advanced Filter in KMM
- Last Updated: May 29, 2026
- 4 minute read
- Semaphore
- Documentation
Advanced Filter Overview The advanced filter allows you to search for concepts in your model by using a combination of free text search and filters.
The advanced filter is accessed by clicking the search icon at the top of the lefthand tree view panel.
There are two parts to the Advanced search:
- The “any text” search box at the top
- The filters section with the “Add filter” button
The “any text” box allows “free text” search and/or the use of regular expressions (regex). Filters either allow “free text” search, such a searching a string metadata property, or a controlled list of values, such as specifying a class that exists in the model.
Click the “Submit” button to run a search.
Regardless of your search, the results are always a list of concepts that meet the search criteria.
“Any text” Search When using the “any text” search, the following data is searched:
- Pref labels
- Alt labels
- Metadata properties
The search is a “contains” search – i.e. the string of characters you search for can be within a string.
The search is case insensitive.
An ‘*’ can be used as a wildcard when regex is ‘off’.
If combined with filters, it is an AND search with those filters.
Using Filters The various filters are added by clicking “Add filter” and selecting from the list of filters.
When using a filter, a free text search is a “starts with” search (this is different than the “any text” search).
The search is case insensitive.
When additional filters are added, or used with the “any text box”, it is an AND search.
Filtering by Language The “any text” box and most of the filters allow you to also filter by a specific language.
Prior to Semaphore version 5.4, searching by specific languages did not work properly – these issues were fixed in 5.4.
Using Regex The use of regex is allowed on string values and is activated when the regex toggle is ‘on’.
Regex help is displayed when mousing over the entry box.
Tip: to quickly test your regex, use a publicly available regex tester, such as: www.regextester.com
There are different “flavors” of regex (i.e. different syntax). So, if you already know regex, you may need to adjust the syntax to work in KMM.
Regex Examples Here are some regex examples on “The Intelligent Gourmand” model in the “any text” search box.
Example 1: ^(?i)q
- Starts with case insensitive ‘q’
- Note: results include a concept with an Alt Label that starts with ‘Q’, concepts with Pref Labels that start with ‘Q’, and would include concepts that have metadata property values that start with ‘Q’
Example 2: lia$
- Ends in case sensitive ‘lia’
Example 3: mer|lo
- Searches for case sensitive ‘mer’ OR ‘lo’
Example 4: ^S[a-z]*\s(?i)[a-z]*a$
- Starts with capital ‘S’, then any lowercase a-z characters, then a space, then case insensitive a-z characters, then ends with ‘a’.
