# Using multi select parameter for filtering a dataset

**URL:** <https://community.easymorph.com/t/using-multi-select-parameter-for-filtering-a-dataset/6791>\
**Category:** General Q&A\
**Created:** [September 15, 2026, 12:56pm UTC](https://community.easymorph.com/t/using-multi-select-parameter-for-filtering-a-dataset/6791 "2026-09-15T12:56:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Emile](https://community.easymorph.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/58956e/32.png) [@Emile](https://community.easymorph.com/u/Emile)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 12:56pm UTC](https://community.easymorph.com/t/using-multi-select-parameter-for-filtering-a-dataset/6791/1 "2026-09-15T12:56:47Z")

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Is it possible to use te selected values of a multi-select parameter to filter a dataset?

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**Author:** ![Emile](https://community.easymorph.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/58956e/32.png) [@Emile](https://community.easymorph.com/u/Emile)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 1:14pm UTC](https://community.easymorph.com/t/using-multi-select-parameter-for-filtering-a-dataset/6791/2 "2026-09-15T13:14:18Z")

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Did not have the syntax for the contains function correct. I use now: contains([fieldname], {multiselect}). But this only works with one selected value

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**Author:** ![roberto](https://community.easymorph.com/user_avatar/community.easymorph.com/roberto/32/8595_2.png) [@roberto](https://community.easymorph.com/u/roberto)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 1:35pm UTC](https://community.easymorph.com/t/using-multi-select-parameter-for-filtering-a-dataset/6791/3 "2026-09-15T13:35:38Z")

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Hi Emile! The expression would be the other way around:

`contains({multiselect}, [fieldname])`

This way, you are checking if the value of the field is contained in the parameter (the multiple choice list).

However, this method is not 100% reliable because let's say that you have a Multi-select where you have selected:

Berry  
Sugar  
Carrot  
Blueberry

And in your dataset you have a list of ingredients:

**Ingredients:**  
Powder  
Strawberry  
Carrot  
Lemon

If you were to do the filter, you would keep "Strawberry" and "Carrot", however you never selected "Strawberry", it just appeared because "Berry" is included inside it.

I recommend instead making the multi-select parameter a list inside EasyMorph (by first displaying its value with the [Parameter table](https://help.easymorph.com/doku.php?id=transformations:parametertable) action, and then using the [Spit delimited text into rows](https://help.easymorph.com/doku.php?id=transformations:subfield) action). Then, you can use that list to filter the values from the dataset, by using the [Keep/remove matching](https://help.easymorph.com/doku.php?id=transformations:keepremovematching) action.

Here's a sample project that does this, the multi-select parameter is a list of states in the US, and depending on the ones you choose, the dataset file gets filtered based on that list:

 ![image](https://community.easymorph.com/uploads/default/original/2X/4/45a5e1d0cc6bb6c04e38f6b90dbb4a10ce0fc252.png)

I attach this project and the sample dataset file in a zip:

[Filter by multi-select parameter.zip](https://community.easymorph.com/uploads/short-url/7OmDHS6lcYxDGY6LVrIMhSDonR7.zip) (174.5 KB)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Emile](https://community.easymorph.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/58956e/32.png) [@Emile](https://community.easymorph.com/u/Emile)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 2:02pm UTC](https://community.easymorph.com/t/using-multi-select-parameter-for-filtering-a-dataset/6791/4 "2026-09-15T14:02:33Z")

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Hi Roberto,

This indeed solves the problem with the substring values. Thanks for the quick response.