bool checkAlignmentTag(const PropertyFilterValue& valueFilter, const BamAlignment& al) {
     
        // ensure filter contains string data
        Variant entireTagFilter = valueFilter.Value;
        if ( !entireTagFilter.is_type<string>() ) return false;

        // localize string from variant
        const string& entireTagFilterString = entireTagFilter.get<string>();

        // ensure we have at least "XX:x"
        if ( entireTagFilterString.length() < 4 ) return false;

        // get tagName & lookup in alignment
        // if found, set tagType to tag type character
        // if not found, return false
        const string& tagName = entireTagFilterString.substr(0,2);
        char tagType = '\0';
        if ( !al.GetTagType(tagName, tagType) ) return false;

        // remove tagName & ":" from beginning tagFilter
        string tagFilterString = entireTagFilterString.substr(3);

        // switch on tag type to set tag query value & parse filter token
        int32_t  intFilterValue,    intQueryValue;
        uint32_t uintFilterValue,   uintQueryValue;
        float    realFilterValue,   realQueryValue;
        string   stringFilterValue, stringQueryValue;

        PropertyFilterValue tagFilter;
        PropertyFilterValue::ValueCompareType compareType;
        bool keepAlignment = false;
        switch (tagType) {

            // signed int tag type
            case 'c' :
            case 's' :
            case 'i' :
                if ( al.GetTag(tagName, intQueryValue) ) {
                    if ( FilterEngine<BamAlignmentChecker>::parseToken(tagFilterString, intFilterValue, compareType) ) {
                        tagFilter.Value = intFilterValue;
                        tagFilter.Type  = compareType;
                        keepAlignment   = tagFilter.check(intQueryValue);
                    }
                }
                break;

            // unsigned int tag type
            case 'C' :
            case 'S' :
            case 'I' :
                if ( al.GetTag(tagName, uintQueryValue) ) {
                    if ( FilterEngine<BamAlignmentChecker>::parseToken(tagFilterString, uintFilterValue, compareType) ) {
                        tagFilter.Value = uintFilterValue;
                        tagFilter.Type  = compareType;
                        keepAlignment   = tagFilter.check(uintQueryValue);
                    }
                }
                break;

            // 'real' tag type
            case 'f' :
                if ( al.GetTag(tagName, realQueryValue) ) {
                    if ( FilterEngine<BamAlignmentChecker>::parseToken(tagFilterString, realFilterValue, compareType) ) {
                        tagFilter.Value = realFilterValue;
                        tagFilter.Type  = compareType;
                        keepAlignment   = tagFilter.check(realQueryValue);
                    }
                }
                break;

            // string tag type
            case 'A':
            case 'Z':
            case 'H':
                if ( al.GetTag(tagName, stringQueryValue) ) {
                    if ( FilterEngine<BamAlignmentChecker>::parseToken(tagFilterString, stringFilterValue, compareType) ) {
                        tagFilter.Value = stringFilterValue;
                        tagFilter.Type  = compareType;
                        keepAlignment   = tagFilter.check(stringQueryValue);
                    }
                }
                break;

            // unknown tag type
            default :
                keepAlignment = false;
        }

        return keepAlignment;
    }