Wow, I missed a lot of new things. I wasn't aware of the count operator. To give some examples of what Mat is talking about here is how you would use it to get an input to a macro (copy and paste this into a tiddler on
tiddlywiki.com to see what the two methods do):
\define DoSomething()
The filter counted $(number)$ tiddlers
\end
\define DoSomethingElse(number)
The filter counted $number$ tiddlers
\end
!!Method 1 - Substitution
<$list filter='[tag[HelloThere]count[]]' variable='number'>
<<DoSomething>>
</$list>
!!Method 2 - Macrocall widget
<$list filter='[tag[HelloThere]count[]]' variable='number'>
<$macrocall $name=DoSomethingElse number=<<number>>/>
</$list>
As Matthew Lauber said, you can also use a set widget to make the variables, I just like the list widgets for some reason.