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Visual Filter, Live, with NOT question, vs. help file

Posted: 14 Jan 2026 02:20
by rd7770
This may not be a bug or documentation discrepancy, just my funny settings, or my misunderstanding.
I'm using XYplorer: 28.10.0300 (64-bit), on a Windows 10 Home system, with 125% screen scaling.

The "Visual Filters" help, in the "Syntax" area, for the "NOT" option, that I'm using in a Live Filter, has an example where I get different result.

The first is:

Code: Select all

a*;b*    -> show all items starting with "a" or "b".
which works as expected, showing 81 items out of 401.

Jumping ahead to:

Code: Select all

To logically reverse an entire pattern, wrap it in parentheses and prefix !.
 !(a*;b*)                  -> hide all items starting with "a" or "b".
which results in all 401 items showing, as if there were no filter at all, and is the focus of my question.

Going back up to:

Code: Select all

!a*;b*   -> hide all items not starting with "a" or starting with "b".
which gets 320 items out of the 401, which means the 81 items in the first example were excluded, but contradicts the help item above.
This is the 'logical reverse' of the first item, not the item above which is somehow wrong in the help.

Unless my having the "Enable extended pattern matching" option ticked somehow messes up the actions.
(An old help topic of 2006 kind of discussed this, but maybe it hasn't come up since then?)
Edit: I also have "Use Space Character for Boolean AND" not ticked.

Re: Visual Filter, Live, with NOT question, vs. help file

Posted: 14 Jan 2026 11:31
by admin
Hm, this works as advertised if the "Enable extended pattern matching" option is ticked:

Code: Select all

!(a*;b*)                  -> hide all items starting with "a" or "b".

Re: Visual Filter, Live, with NOT question, vs. help file

Posted: 14 Jan 2026 11:35
by admin
Ah, you probably have an old tweak active: VFAllowMasterInvertOldWay=1. Just set it to 0:
VFAllowMasterInvertOldWay=0

Re: Visual Filter, Live, with NOT question, vs. help file

Posted: 14 Jan 2026 15:39
by rd7770
admin wrote: 14 Jan 2026 11:35 Ah, you probably have an old tweak active: VFAllowMasterInvertOldWay=1. Just set it to 0:
VFAllowMasterInvertOldWay=0
That fixed my discrepancy with the help file.
But I don't recall ever editing that tweak.

Re: Visual Filter, Live, with NOT question, vs. help file

Posted: 14 Jan 2026 15:48
by admin
It was auto-tweaked when upgrading to v22.20.0222 to preserve the previous behavior.