Filter by text fields

You can add filters in Better Reports to narrow down the rows of data returned in a report. Better Reports doesn’t include implicit filters — you’ll always set them explicitly. This article explains the available operator options for filtering on text fields.

You can identify text fields by the abc icon beside the field name in the report builder.

Is in / Is not in

Is in shows rows that match any of the values you enter.

Example: Filtering Product type is in Art, Clothing returns rows where the product type is either Art or Clothing.

Is not in shows rows that match none of the values you enter.

💡 Both operators allow special operands:

[Unknown] matches rows with a NULL value (no data).

<empty> matches rows with a blank string.

Contains / Doesn't contain

Contains finds rows where the field includes the text anywhere inside the value.

Example: Filtering Product type contains Art matches Fine art, Cartwheel, and Artisan.

Doesn't contain excludes rows with that text anywhere in the field value.

Starts with / Doesn't start with

Starts with filters rows beginning with the entered value.

Example: Filtering Product type starts with Art matches Art and Artisan but not Fine art.

Doesn't start with excludes those rows.

Ends with / Doesn't end with

Ends with filters rows ending with the entered value.

Example: Product type ends with ing matches Clothing and Painting.

Doesn't end with excludes those rows.

Like / Not like

The like and not like operators use wildcard characters to match patterns.

Wildcard	Description	Example
%	Any string of zero or more characters	%computer% finds rows containing computer
_	Any single character	_ean finds Dean and Sean
[ ]	Any single character within a range or set	[C-P]arsen finds Carsen and Larsen
[^ ]	Any single character not in a range or set	[^abc]ing finds sing and king
[#-#]	Any single number in a range	[0-9][0-9][0-9]R% matches values like 123Report

💡 You can combine wildcards for advanced patterns.

Example: [a-f]_[^et]%ing% matches text starting with a–f, followed by a character, then not e or t, and later containing ing.

Matches regex / Doesn't match regex

These operators let you filter rows using regular expressions (regex) — a powerful way to define search patterns. Regex is more flexible than “like” because it lets you describe very specific text rules.

For example:

^A matches any value that starts with “A.”
[0-9]{3} matches any three-digit number.
ing$ matches values that end with “ing.”

Regex can be very precise — and sometimes tricky. If you’re new to it, start simple, and use the Microsoft quick reference linked above to learn the full set of options.

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