# Filtering symbols

**URL:** <https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/filtering-symbols/3692>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [September 25, 2020, 9:22am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/filtering-symbols/3692 "2020-09-25T09:22:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![FitAnimal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f17d59/32.png) [@FitAnimal](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/FitAnimal)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 9:22am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/filtering-symbols/3692/1 "2020-09-25T09:22:44Z")

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I’m trying to filter cards on certain symbols such as the slash (/) and asterisk (\*) but doesn’t seem to work by just typing it straight up. How do I filter by these kind of symbols?

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**Author:** ![abdo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/abdo/32/654_2.png) [@abdo](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/abdo)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 11:37am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/filtering-symbols/3692/2 "2020-09-25T11:37:39Z")

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You may need to substitute some characters because they have special meaning to Anki depending on context.  
For example, the asterisk needs to be substituted by `\*` when using a specific filter (like `deck:`, `tag:`), so if you are trying to find all cards in a deck named `test*`, you have to search for `deck:test\*` to get the right results, but you don’t have to do that for [simple searches](https://docs.ankiweb.net/#/searching?id=simple-searches).

I recommend reading the [searching](https://docs.ankiweb.net/#/searching) section in the manual for a better explanation.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/1X/8f1279ababc5879d54e4838989f606cfe55af8c7.jpeg) [@system](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2023, 5:29am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/filtering-symbols/3692/3 "2023-05-01T05:29:51Z")

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