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Constructing JQL queries

A simple query in JQL (also known as a 'clause') consists of a field, followed by an operator, followed by one or more values or functions. For example:

project = "TEST"

This query will find all issues in the "TEST" project. It uses the "project" field, the EQUALS operator, and the value "TEST".

A more complex query might look like this:

project = "TEST" AND assignee = currentuser()

This query will find all issues in the "TEST" project where the assignee is the currently logged in user. It uses the "project" field, the EQUALS operator, the value "TEST",the "AND" keyword and the "currentuser()" function.

For more information on fields, operators, keywords and functions, see the Reference section below.

Precedence in JQL queries

Precedence in JQL queries depends on keywords that you use to connect your clauses (a clause being e.g. project = “Teams in Space”). The easiest way to look at this is to treat the AND keyword as the one grouping clauses, and OR as the one separating them. The AND keyword takes precedence over other keywords, because it groups clauses together, essentially turning them into one combined clause.

Example 1

status=resolved AND project=“Teams in Space” OR assignee=captainjoe

This query will return all resolved issues from the “Teams in Space” project (clauses grouped by AND), and also all existing issues assigned to captainjoe. The clause after the OR keyword is treated as separate.

Example 2

status=resolved OR project="Teams in Space" AND assignee=captainjoe

This query, on the other hand, will return captainjoe’s issues from the “Teams in Space” project (clauses grouped by AND), and also all existing resolved issues (a clause separated by OR).

Example 3

status=resolved OR projects="Teams in Space" OR assigne=captainjoe

When you only use the OR keyword, all clauses will be treated as separate, and equal in terms of precedence.

Setting the precedence

You can set precedence in your JQL queries by using parentheses. Parentheses will group certain clauses together and enforce precedence.

Example 1

As you can see below, parentheses can turn our example JQL query around. This query would return resolved issues that either belong to the “Teams in Space” project, or are assigned to captainjoe.

status=resolved AND (project="Teams in Space" OR assignee=captainjoe)

Example 2

If you used parentheses like in the following example, they wouldn’t have any effect, because the clauses enclosed in parentheses were already connected by AND. This query would return the same results with or without the parentheses.

(status=resolved AND project="Teams in Space") OR assignee=captainjoe

Restricted words and characters

Reserved characters

JQL has a list of reserved characters:

If you wish to use these characters in queries, you need to:

• surround them with quote-marks (you can use either single quote-marks (') or double quote-marks ("));
  and, 
• if you are searching a text field and the character is on the list of special characters in text searches, precede them with two backslashes. This will let you run the query that contains a reserved character, but the character itself will be ignored in your query. For more info, see Special characters in Search syntax for text fields.

For example:

• version = "[example]"

• summary ~ "\\[example\\]"

Reserved words

JQL also has a list of reserved words. These words need to be surrounded by quote-marks (single or double) if you wish to use them in queries.

Note for JIRA administrators: this list is hard coded in the JqlStringSupportImpl.java file.

Performing text searches

You can use Lucene's text-searching features when performing searches on the following fields, using the CONTAINS operator:

Summary, Description, Environment, Comments, custom fields that use the "Free Text Searcher" (i.e. custom fields of the following built-in custom field types: Free Text Field, Text Field, Read-only Text Field).

For more information, see Search syntax for text fields.