# Problem with wildcards in expression function "isAlarmActiveFiltered"

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/problem-with-wildcards-in-expression-function-isalarmactivefiltered/115404>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** perspective\
**Created:** [May 6, 2026, 1:23pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/problem-with-wildcards-in-expression-function-isalarmactivefiltered/115404 "2026-05-06T13:23:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mirko.cerin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7feea3/32.png) [@mirko.cerin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mirko.cerin)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2026, 1:23pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/problem-with-wildcards-in-expression-function-isalarmactivefiltered/115404/1 "2026-05-06T13:23:49Z")

</div>

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to use the _isAlarmActiveFiltered_ expression function to show a label based on the presence of any alarm in the following path:

> [default]CPU\_1/......... /O\_STS/BYP\_ACT

the series of dot is where I would add the wildcard "\*" because I have this tag with the alarm active in different paths because is used in 4 different UDTs.

This is the expression I tried:

```python
isAlarmActiveFiltered("[default]CPU_1/*/O_STS/BYP_ACT", "*", "*", 4, 4, 0, 1, 0)

```

The problem I have is that if I use this function I get an error that says _Error\_ExpressionEval("Invalid relative tag path '\*'. No enclosing tag could be found.")_ so I thought that maybe I put the wildcard in the wrong position but when I tried the example in the official documentation the same error appeared.

Is it a problem with the 8.3.4 version of Ignition or am I doing something wrong? If it's the latter, what can I do to fix it?

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/4/9/49562ad591c941e6ea609577febdc5c3d7bd7a5f.png)

Thanks in advance

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MMaynard](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/mmaynard/32/3366_2.png) [@MMaynard](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/MMaynard)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2026, 9:42pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/problem-with-wildcards-in-expression-function-isalarmactivefiltered/115404/2 "2026-05-06T21:42:35Z")

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The first parameter is tagPath, I don't think you can filter directly inside it.

```python
isAlarmActiveFiltered("[default]CPU_1/*", "*", "*", 4, 4, 0, 1, 0)

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mirko.cerin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7feea3/32.png) [@mirko.cerin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mirko.cerin)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2026, 6:54am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/problem-with-wildcards-in-expression-function-isalarmactivefiltered/115404/3 "2026-05-07T06:54:35Z")

</div>

I already tried your version and I know it works, but I'll have to change all my alarm name.

Thanks.