# is there a method for filtering out duplicate samples?
**URL:** https://forum.qiime2.org/t/is-there-a-method-for-filtering-out-duplicate-samples/11483
**Category:** User Support
**Created:** [September 12, 2019, 12:20pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/is-there-a-method-for-filtering-out-duplicate-samples/11483 "2019-09-12T12:20:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@msport469](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/msport469)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2019, 12:20pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/is-there-a-method-for-filtering-out-duplicate-samples/11483/1 "2019-09-12T12:20:35Z")
Is there a way to filter out duplicate samples so I can merge feature tables without doing it outside of qiime2? How do you recommend removing duplicate samples run on both runs @thermokarst?
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### Author:  [@Nicholas\_Bokulich](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/Nicholas_Bokulich)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2019, 2:28pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/is-there-a-method-for-filtering-out-duplicate-samples/11483/2 "2019-09-12T14:28:59Z")
there is a way to filter out any kind of samples, duplicate or otherwise: `qiime feature-table filter-samples`. You can either pass in a sample metadata file that only contains samples you want to keep, or you can add a column to the full metadata file that indicates whether a sample is a duplicate or not (and hence whether it should be filtered by that command).
But there is also another way: use `qiime feature-table group` to collapse duplicate samples (e.g., taking the sum of their reads).
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2019, 12:00am UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/is-there-a-method-for-filtering-out-duplicate-samples/11483/4 "2019-10-14T00:00:00Z")
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