# Filter Text Lines Quickly return text lines that match a pattern or a regex > Canonical page: https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/text-line-filter - **Category:** Text Processing - **Keywords:** text, filter, lines, pattern, regex, match, search, Text Line Filter ## Overview Filter Text Lines is a powerful utility designed to help you quickly extract, isolate, or remove specific lines from large blocks of text based on custom patterns, regular expressions, or predefined formats. ## Inputs - **Text Input** (textarea): Enter text to filter lines from... - **Filter Type** (select) - **Pattern/Text** (text): The pattern to match against (not used for some filter types) - **Match Type** (select) - **Case Sensitive** (checkbox): Match case when filtering (not applicable to all filter types) - **Invert Match** (checkbox): Show lines that do NOT match the criteria ## When to use - When you need to extract specific data entries from large log files or raw datasets. - When you want to clean up text by removing empty lines or lines that do not meet specific criteria. - When you need to verify data integrity by isolating lines that match specific formats like emails or URLs. ## How it works - Paste your source text into the input area. - Select your desired filter type, such as 'Contains Text', 'Regular Expression', or 'Email Format'. - Configure additional settings like case sensitivity or match inversion to refine your results. - Click the process button to instantly view or copy the filtered lines. ## Use cases - Extracting specific error codes from server log files. - Cleaning lists of contact information by filtering for valid email addresses. - Isolating specific configuration lines from a large settings file. ## Frequently asked questions ### Can I use regular expressions to filter text? Yes, select the 'Regular Expression' filter type and enter your regex pattern in the pattern field. ### How do I remove lines that contain specific words? Select 'Contains Text', enter the word, and check the 'Invert Match' box to show only lines that do not contain that word. ### Does this tool support case-sensitive filtering? Yes, you can toggle the 'Case Sensitive' checkbox to ensure your filter respects character casing. ### Can I filter out empty lines? Yes, set the 'Match Type' option to 'Exclude Empty Lines' to automatically strip blank lines from your output. ### Is there a limit to the amount of text I can process? The tool is designed for high-performance text processing, though extremely large files may be limited by your browser's memory capacity. ## Related tools - [Line Number Remover](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/line-number-remover): Remove line numbers from text or code with intelligent pattern recognition - [Text File Searcher](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/text-file-searcher): Search for text patterns in files with advanced options (regex, case-sensitive, whole word, etc.) - [Filter Text Paragraphs](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/text-paragraph-filter): Quickly return all paragraphs that match a pattern or a regex - [Filter Text Sentences](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/text-sentence-filter): Quickly return all sentences that match a pattern or a regex - [Filter Words in Text](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/text-word-filter): Quickly return words in text that match a pattern or a regex - [Regex Debugger](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/regex-debugger): Step through how a regular expression matches a string position by position: visualize match attempts, partial successes, backtracks, and captures — a learning tool for understanding regex behavior, not just the final result - [Text Replacer](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/text-replacer): Replace text using custom patterns - [Regex Tester](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/regex-tester): Test regular expressions against text ## Samples - [Text with Emoji Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/text-with-emoji-samples): Mixed language text containing various Unicode emojis for testing emoji extraction - [Regex Replace Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/regex-replace): Collection of common and useful regex replacement patterns for text transformation and data cleaning - [Chinese-English Mixed Text Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/text-chinese-english-mixed-samples): Sample text files with mixed Chinese and English content for testing automatic spacing tools - [Text Case Format Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/text-case-formats): Examples of different text case formats: camelCase, snake_case, kebab-case, PascalCase, and more ## Related content - [Text Tools](https://elysiatools.com/en/hubs/text-utility): Explore 33 text tools for utility workflows and compare closely related utilities quickly. - [Text List Cleanup, Deduplication, and Line Formatting Tools](https://elysiatools.com/en/hubs/text-list-cleanup-workflows): Clean pasted text lists by removing duplicates, fixing whitespace, filtering lines, sorting entries, and applying consistent line-level formatting in one workflow hub. - [Text Case, Encoding, and Normalization Conversion Tools](https://elysiatools.com/en/hubs/text-convert): Compare text case conversion, character-width conversion, encoding conversion, quoted-printable handling, and inline text normalization tools in one hub. - [Text Analysis, Readability, and Content Inspection Tools](https://elysiatools.com/en/hubs/text-analyze): Compare text statistics, language detection, readability scoring, sentiment analysis, moderation review, and pattern analysis tools in one hub.