What is the difference between the filter "contains" and "is equal to"?

When using a filter on a metric or dimension, the "is equal to" or "contains" criteria will not return the same results. Indeed, these two criteria may appear similar, but a subtlety differentiates them.

By applying the "contains" criterion, you will obtain visits exposed to more content than if you applied the "is equal to" criterion: 

• The expression "contains" retrieves all the values containing at least the given string. For example by filtering the dimension Page :

We then observe 3 pages containing the character string 'home':

• The expression "is equal to" retrieves only the value corresponding precisely to the given string. For example by filtering the dimension Page :

We observe then only 1 page answering the strict criterion 'home':

Note that the "contains" filter is less efficient than the "equals" filter because it requires more processing. We recommend that you use the "is equal to" filter to minimize the waiting time for calls on our tools.