# fiftyone.core.session.utils FiftyOne session utilities. Copyright 2017-2026, Voxel51, Inc.
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**Functions:** | [`normalize_selected_samples`](#fiftyone.core.session.utils.normalize_selected_samples)(samples) | Normalizes a list of selected samples to the canonical format. | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------| ### fiftyone.core.session.utils.normalize_selected_samples(samples: List) → List[Dict] Normalizes a list of selected samples to the canonical format. Despite its name, `selected_samples` represents whatever sample grid items are in the current view: samples, patches, clips, or frames. Accepts both `list[str]` (all `"default"`) and `list[dict]` (`{"id": ..., "type": ...}`). * **Parameters:** **samples** – a list of IDs (strings) or dicts with `id` and `type` keys * **Returns:** a list of dicts with `id` and `type` keys