6.1.3. Cut strings and selections

Cut strings in basf2 analysis scripts work quite intuitively, particularly if you’re comfortable with python logic. There are some minor differences with respect to ROOT cut strings.

Cut strings are used to manipulate candidates (i.e. ParticleList s) with modularAnalysis.applyCuts, and modularAnalysis.cutAndCopyList. Events selections are applied with modularAnalysis.applyEventCuts.

Allowed comparisons are <, <=, >, >=, == and !=. Two-sided inequalities like 1.2 < M < 1.5 also work as expected. Use the logical operators and and or to combine your cuts.

Warning

You should use square brackets [, ] to separate conditional statements.

Hint

For a more in-depth documentation of cut strings for developers, you can refer to the doxygen documentation for the GeneralCut class.

This logic can become quite powerful, particularly in combination with the formula MetaVariable. Here are some examples:

from modularAnalysis import applyEventCuts, fillParticleLists
fillParticleLists([("gamma:allecl", "isFromECL"), ("e+:clusters", "clusterE > 0")], path=mypath)

total_ecl_clusters = "formula(nParticlesInList(gamma:allecl) + nParticlesInList(e+:clusters))"
applyEventCuts(f"[nTracks > 10] and [{total_ecl_clusters} > 4]", path=mypath)

The above example can be made even more readable with the use of variable aliases (VariableManager.addAlias).

from modularAnalysis import applyEventCuts
from variables import variables as vm

vm.addAlias("totalECLClusters", "formula(nParticlesInList(gamma:all) + nParticlesInList(e+:clusters))")
applyEventCuts("[nTracks > 10] and [totalECLClusters > 4]", path=mypath)