Exclude folders and filetypes both globally and for file filters

[patgilmour]

On 3/14/2017 at 0:10 PM, Andrew said:

 

2. A regex to subsequently filter by path, allowing path matches to be rejected.

 

 

That would be great (if it could include OR | type options).

[robertstrazz]

I would like to place another vote for this.  Ability to exclude certain folders is my #1 request.  A nice to have would be to make "open x" only return folders as results and not individual files.  Thanks!

[deanishe]

1 hour ago, robertstrazz said:

A nice to have would be to make "open x" only return folders as results and not individual files.

 

This is trivial to do with a File Filter. You can also assign a much shorter keyword than open. Mine is f.

[Vero]

@robertstrazz Following on from @deanishe's suggestion to use a file filter, here's a guide to creating your own file filter workflows:

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/workflows/inputs/file-filter/

 

You'll also find a pre-created file filter workflow built into Alfred in the Workflows preferences, press the + at the bottom of the sidebar > Examples > Simple Folder Search.  

 

Cheers,

Vero

[slowkow]

I'm trying to understand the discussion so far, but I think I'm lost.

 

I can't seem to find regular expression matching or simple string matching e.g. "~some file.pptx".startswith("~") in the Alfred settings.

 

Is it true that Alfred does not and will not allow users to exclude items from the result by using string matching or regular expressions?

• For example, I never want to see the Microsoft Powerpoint backup files that always start with the "~" character.
• However, I do want to see the actual ".pptx" files.
• I would like to tell Alfred that I don't want to see results that match this regex: ^~

 

 

[deanishe]

18 minutes ago, slowkow said:

Is it true that Alfred does not and will not allow users to exclude items from the result by using string matching or regular expressions?

 

Correct. The macOS search API is fundamentally include-only. You can exclude directories from being indexed in the first place (via Spotlight's "Privacy" pane), but there is no way to specify any sort of exclusion in a search.

 

This question was asked again more recently, and here's Andrew's explanation for why post-filtering results in Alfred isn't feasible:

 

 

[Hans Tammen]

Would it be possible to use alfred:ignore to include items within a folder?

 

Hans

Edited March 26, 2022 by Hans Tammen

[gills]

I'm still a little confused after reading through this thread and others. I understand it isn't possible in normal results, but the suggestion to use File Filters keep popping up. So is it possible to exclude folders that match a string specifically in a custom File Filter workflow?

[FireFingers21]

@gills Yes it is. In the File Filter under the Fields tab, add a search field using the + button and click `kMDItemDisplayName`. Change the value from `{query}` to the string you want to match and click the checkbox under the NOT column. Now any folder name containing the string you specified will be excluded from the results of that File Filter.

 

See the documentation for the File Filter Input here, which might explain the Fields section a little better.