# Hidden variables in ParaView

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/hidden-variables-in-paraview/3374
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [January 21, 2020, 3:10pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/hidden-variables-in-paraview/3374 "2020-01-21T15:10:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![siver](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@siver](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/siver)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2020, 3:10pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/hidden-variables-in-paraview/3374/1 "2020-01-21T15:10:30Z")

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Dear PV devs and users,

Is it possible to define an `invisible` field (say `p_hidden`)?

Invisible means that the variable is physically present in the .vtm, but cannot be accessed in PV (not shown in the drop down menu, nor in the information summary etc.)

Thank you,  
Art

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### Author: ![cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/cory.quammen/32/11193_2.png) [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2020, 3:58pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/hidden-variables-in-paraview/3374/2 "2020-01-21T15:58:25Z")

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> [@siver](#):
>
> Is it possible to define an `invisible` field (say `p_hidden` )?

Not to my knowledge.

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### Author: ![siver](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@siver](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/siver)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 9:31am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/hidden-variables-in-paraview/3374/3 "2020-01-22T09:31:34Z")

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Thank you very much for your reply.

What I am trying to do is to store some metadata (a table, some columns are digits, some are text) in a _.vtm_ file. Currently, I store it as FieldData on a vtkMultiBlockDataSet. However, the column names keep appearing in the drop down menu with other variables and in the information section (i.e. min, max values, which are meaningless and misleading for this data).

Hence I was hoping to make the data hidden or invisible.  
Are there any other ways to store (tabulated) metadata, apart from point, cell and field arrays?

Thank you very much,  
Art

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### Author: ![cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/cory.quammen/32/11193_2.png) [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 3:16pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/hidden-variables-in-paraview/3374/4 "2020-01-22T15:16:40Z")

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Thanks for clarifying. You can hide arrays from the color array list only (not the information panel) by heading to Edit -\> Settings (Preferences on macOS), clicking on the _Color Arrays_ tab, then entering the names of arrays you want to not show.