Title: How do you do filter not equal?
Last modified: November 11, 2021

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# How do you do filter not equal?

 *  Resolved [tcsimon](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tcsimon/)
 * (@tcsimon)
 * [4 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-do-you-do-filter-not-equal/)
 * I’m trying to filter the pdb_list, to only show first name, last name, email,
   and services and to only show records where the services field is not empty. 
   Not having much luck. What I’m getting is the email and the services for all 
   the records. This is my shortcode:
 * [pdb_list fields=”first_name, last_name, email, services” filter=services!]
 * I’ve tried a number of different ways to do “not equal” but none of them work.
   I have gone into phpmyadmin and the Null values in that column to ”.
 * Thanks in advance.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  Plugin Author [Roland Barker](https://wordpress.org/support/users/xnau/)
 * (@xnau)
 * [4 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-do-you-do-filter-not-equal/#post-15059719)
 * The filter you have in your example looks correct for what you’re trying to do.
 * `filter="services!"`
 * Will show all records with a “not empty” value for the “services” column. This
   is because the plugin will be looking for a comparison value after the “!” (which
   does mean “not equals”) and since there is none, it makes the comparison to an
   empty value.
 * The double quotes are not necessary, but can be visually helpful.
 * If you turn [plugin debugging](https://xnau.com/using-the-participants-database-debugging-log/?swcfpc=1)
   on, you will be able to see the database query that is used to generate the list.
   This will help you understand the result you’re getting.
    -  This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by [Roland Barker](https://wordpress.org/support/users/xnau/).
 *  Thread Starter [tcsimon](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tcsimon/)
 * (@tcsimon)
 * [4 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-do-you-do-filter-not-equal/#post-15059833)
 * It’s working now. Not sure why I wasn’t seeing it before. Caching maybe? Thanks
   for your quick response.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

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## Tags

 * [filter](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/filter/)

 * 2 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [tcsimon](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tcsimon/)
 * Last activity: [4 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-do-you-do-filter-not-equal/#post-15059833)
 * Status: resolved