Advanced searching - operators reference

Created by Magdalena Michalak on Sep 09, 2019

This page describes information about operators that are used for advanced searching.

An operator in JQL is one or more symbols or words, which compares the value of a field on its left with one or more values (or functions) on its right, such that only true results are retrieved by the clause. Some operators may use the NOT keyword.

EQUALS: =

The "=" operator is used to search for issues where the value of the specified field exactly matches the specified value. (Note: cannot be used with text fields; see the CONTAINS operator instead.)

To find issues where the value of a specified field exactly matches multiple values, use multiple "=" statements with the AND operator.

Examples

Find all issues that were created by jsmith:
```
reporter = jsmith
```
Find all issues that were created by John Smith:
```
reporter = "John Smith"
```

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On this page:

NOT EQUALS: !=

The "!=" operator is used to search for issues where the value of the specified field does not match the specified value. (Note: cannot be used with text fields; see the DOES NOT MATCH ("!~") operator instead.)

Note that typing field != value is the same as typing NOT field = value, and that field != EMPTY is the same as field IS_NOT EMPTY.

The "!=" operator will not match a field that has no value (i.e. a field that is empty). For example, component != fred will only match issues that have a component and the component is not "fred". To find issues that have a component other than "fred" or have no component, you would need to type: component != fred or component is empty.

Examples

Find all issues that are assigned to any user except jsmith:
```
not assignee = jsmith
```
or:
```
assignee != jsmith
```
Find all issues that are not assigned to jsmith:
```
assignee != jsmith or assignee is empty
```
Find all issues that were reported by me but are not assigned to me:
```
reporter = currentUser() and assignee != currentUser()
```
Find all issues where the Reporter or Assignee is anyone except John Smith:
```
assignee != "John Smith" or reporter != "John Smith"
```
Find all issues that are not unassigned:
```
assignee is not empty
```
or
```
assignee != null
```

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GREATER THAN: >

The ">" operator is used to search for issues where the value of the specified field is greater than the specified value.

Note that the ">" operator can only be used with fields that support ordering (e.g. date fields and version fields), and cannot be used with text fields. To see a field's supported operators, check the individual field reference.

Examples

Find all issues with more than 4 votes:
```
votes > 4
```
Find all overdue issues:
```
duedate < now() and resolution is empty
```
Find all issues where priority is higher than "Normal":
```
priority > normal
```

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GREATER THAN EQUALS: >=

The ">=" operator is used to search for issues where the value of the specified field is greater than or equal to the specified value.

Note that the ">=" operator can only be used with fields that support ordering (e.g. date fields and version fields), and cannot be used with text fields. To see a field's supported operators, check the individual field reference.

Examples

Find all issues with 4 or more votes:
```
votes >= 4
```
Find all issues due on or after 31/12/2008:
```
duedate >= "2008/12/31"
```
Find all issues created in the last five days:
```
created >= "-5d"
```

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LESS THAN: <

The "<" operator is used to search for issues where the value of the specified field is less than the specified value.

Note that the "<" operator can only be used with fields which support ordering (e.g. date fields and version fields), and cannot be used with text fields. To see a field's supported operators, check the individual field reference.

Examples

Find all issues with less than 4 votes:
```
votes < 4
```

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LESS THAN EQUALS: <=

The "<=" operator is used to search for issues where the value of the specified field is less than or equal to than the specified value.

Note that the "<=" operator can only be used with fields which support ordering (e.g. date fields and version fields), and cannot be used with text fields. To see a field's supported operators, check the individual field reference.

Examples

Find all issues with 4 or fewer votes:
```
votes <= 4
```
Find all issues that have not been updated in the past month (30 days):
```
updated <= "-4w 2d"
```

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IN

The "IN" operator is used to search for issues where the value of the specified field is one of multiple specified values. The values are specified as a comma-delimited list, surrounded by parentheses.

Using "IN" is equivalent to using multiple EQUALS (=) statements, but is shorter and more convenient. That is, typing reporter IN (tom, jane, harry) is the same as typing reporter = "tom" OR reporter = "jane" OR reporter = "harry".

Examples

Find all issues that were created by either jsmith or jbrown or jjones:
```
reporter in (jsmith,jbrown,jjones)
```
Find all issues where the Reporter or Assignee is either Jack or Jill:
```
reporter in (Jack,Jill) or assignee in (Jack,Jill)
```
Find all issues in version 3.14 or version 4.2:
```
affectedVersion in ("3.14", "4.2")
```

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NOT IN

The "NOT IN" operator is used to search for issues where the value of the specified field is not one of multiple specified values.

Using "NOT IN" is equivalent to using multiple NOT_EQUALS (!=) statements, but is shorter and more convenient. That is, typing reporter NOT IN (tom, jane, harry) is the same as typing reporter != "tom" AND reporter != "jane" AND reporter != "harry".

The "NOT IN" operator will not match a field that has no value (i.e. a field that is empty). For example, assignee not in (jack,jill) will only match issues that have an assignee and the assignee is not "jack" or "jill". To find issues that are assigned to someone other than "jack" or "jill" or are unassigned, you would need to type: assignee not in (jack,jill) or assignee is empty.

Examples

Find all issues where the Assignee is someone other than Jack, Jill, or John:
```
assignee not in (Jack,Jill,John)
```
Find all issues where the Assignee is not Jack, Jill, or John:
```
assignee not in (Jack,Jill,John) or assignee is empty
```
Find all issues where the FixVersion is not 'A', 'B', 'C', or 'D':
```
FixVersion not in (A, B, C, D)
```
Find all issues where the FixVersion is not 'A', 'B', 'C', or 'D', or has not been specified:
```
FixVersion not in (A, B, C, D) or FixVersion is empty
```

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CONTAINS: ~

The "~" operator is used to search for issues where the value of the specified field matches the specified value (either an exact match or a "fuzzy" match — see examples below). For use with version and text fields only, i.e:

Text fields:

Summary
Description
Environment
Comments
Custom fields that use the "Free Text Searcher"; this includes custom fields of the following built-in Custom Field Types
- Free Text Field (unlimited text)
- Text Field (< 255 characters)
- Read-only Text Field

Version fields:

Affected version
Fix version
Custom fields that use the "Version Picker".

The JQL field "text" as in text ~ "some words" searches an issue's Summary, Description, Environment, Comments. It also searches all text custom fields. If you have many text custom fields you can improve performance of your queries by searching on specific fields, e.g.
Summary ~ "some words" OR Description ~ "some words"

Note: when using the "~" operator, the value on the right-hand side of the operator can be specified using Jira text-search syntax.

Examples

Find all issues where the Summary contains the word "win" (or simple derivatives of that word, such as "wins"):
```
summary ~ win
```
Note that for version fields, the ~ operator returns an exact match. For example, to find the version "9.0", you would use the following query:
```
fixVersion ~ "9.0"
```
Find all issues where the Summary contains a wild-card match for the word "win":
```
summary ~ "win*"
```
Find all issues where the Summary contains the word "issue" and the word "collector":
```
summary ~ "issue collector"
```
Find all issues where the Summary contains the exact phrase "full screen" (see Search syntax for text fields for details on how to escape quote-marks and other special characters):
```
summary ~ "\"full screen\""
```
Find all issues where the Fix Version field contains a wild-card match for version "9", e.g. 9.1 or 9.0.1:
```
fixVersion ~ "9*"
```
Find all issues where the Fix Version field contais "9", e.g. 0.9.1 or 9.1:
```
fixVersion ~ "*9*"
```

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DOES NOT CONTAIN: !~

The "!~" operator is used to search for issues where the value of the specified field matches the specified value. For use with version and text fields only, i.e.:

Text fields:

Summary
Description
Environment
Comments
Custom fields that use the "Free Text Searcher"; this includes custom fields of the following built-in Custom Field Types
- Free Text Field (unlimited text)
- Text Field (< 255 characters)
- Read-only Text Field

Version fields:

Affected version
Fix version
Custom fields that use the "Version Picker".

The JQL field "text" as in text ~ "some words" searches an issue's Summary, Description, Environment, Comments. It also searches all text custom fields. If you have many text custom fields you can improve performance of your queries by searching on specific fields, e.g.
Summary ~ "some words" OR Description ~ "some words"

Note: when using the "!~" operator, the value on the right-hand side of the operator can be specified using Jira text-search syntax.

Examples

Find all issues where the Summary does not contain the word "run" (or derivatives of that word, such as "running" or "ran"):
```
summary !~ run
```
Note that for version fields, the ~ operator returns an exact match. For example, to find issues where Fix Version is not "9.0", you would use the following query:
```
fixVersion !~ "9.0"
```
Find all issues where the Fix Version field does not contain any version from the 9.x line:
```
fixVersion !~ "9.*"
```

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IS

The "IS" operator can only be used with EMPTY or NULL. That is, it is used to search for issues where the specified field has no value.

Note that not all fields are compatible with this operator; see the individual field reference for details.

Examples

Find all issues that have no Fix Version:
```
fixVersion is empty
```
or
```
fixVersion is null
```

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IS NOT

The "IS NOT" operator can only be used with EMPTY or NULL. That is, it is used to search for issues where the specified field has a value.

Note that not all fields are compatible with this operator; see the individual field reference for details.

Examples

Find all issues that have one or more votes:
```
votes is not empty
```
or
```
votes is not null
```

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WAS

The "WAS" operator is used to find issues that currently have or previously had the specified value for the specified field.

This operator has the following optional predicates:

AFTER "date"
BEFORE "date"
BY "username"
DURING ("date1","date2")
ON "date"

This operator will match the value name (e.g. "Resolved"), which was configured in your system at the time that the field was changed. This operator will also match the value ID associated with that value name too — that is, it will match "4" as well as "Resolved".

(Note: This operator can be used with the Assignee, Fix Version, Priority, Reporter, Resolution, and Status fields only.)

Examples

Find issues that currently have or previously had a status of 'In Progress':
```
status WAS "In Progress"
```
Find issues that were resolved by Joe Smith before 2nd February:
```
status WAS "Resolved" BY jsmith BEFORE "2011/02/02"
```

Find issues that were resolved by Joe Smith during 2010:

status WAS "Resolved" BY jsmith DURING ("2010/01/01","2011/01/01")

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WAS IN

The "WAS IN" operator is used to find issues that currently have or previously had any of multiple specified values for the specified field. The values are specified as a comma-delimited list, surrounded by parentheses.

Using "WAS IN" is equivalent to using multiple WAS statements, but is shorter and more convenient. That is, typing status WAS IN ('Resolved', 'Closed') is the same as typing status WAS "Resolved" OR status WAS "Closed".

This operator has the following optional predicates:

AFTER "date"
BEFORE "date"
BY "username"
DURING ("date1","date2")
ON "date"

This operator will match the value name (e.g. "Resolved"), which was configured in your system at the time that the field was changed. This operator will also match the value ID associated with that value name too — that is, it will match "4" as well as "Resolved".

(Note: This operator can be used with the Assignee, Fix Version, Priority, Reporter, Resolution, and Status fields only.)

Examples

Find all issues that currently have, or previously had, a status of 'Resolved' or 'In Progress':
```
status WAS IN ("Resolved","In Progress")
```

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WAS NOT IN

The "WAS NOT IN" operator is used to search for issues where the value of the specified field has never been one of multiple specified values.

Using "WAS NOT IN" is equivalent to using multiple WAS_NOT statements, but is shorter and more convenient. That is, typing status WAS NOT IN ("Resolved","In Progress") is the same as typing status WAS NOT "Resolved" AND status WAS NOT "In Progress".

This operator has the following optional predicates:

AFTER "date"
BEFORE "date"
BY "username"
DURING ("date1","date2")
ON "date"

This operator will match the value name (e.g. "Resolved"), which was configured in your system at the time that the field was changed. This operator will also match the value ID associated with that value name, too — that is, it will match "4" as well as "Resolved".

(Note: This operator can be used with the Assignee, Fix Version, Priority, Reporter, Resolution, and Status fields only.)

Examples

Find issues that have never had a status of 'Resolved' or 'In Progress':
```
status WAS NOT IN ("Resolved","In Progress")
```
Find issues that did not have a status of 'Resolved' or 'In Progress' before 2nd February:
```
status WAS NOT IN ("Resolved","In Progress") BEFORE "2011/02/02"
```

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WAS NOT

The "WAS NOT" operator is used to find issues that have never had the specified value for the specified field.

This operator has the following optional predicates:

AFTER "date"
BEFORE "date"
BY "username"
DURING ("date1","date2")
ON "date"

This operator will match the value name (e.g. "Resolved"), which was configured in your system at the time that the field was changed. This operator will also match the value ID associated with that value name too — that is, it will match "4" as well as "Resolved".

(Note: This operator can be used with the Assignee, Fix Version, Priority, Reporter, Resolution, and Status fields only.)

Examples

Find issues that do not have, and have never had a status of 'In Progress':
```
status WAS NOT "In Progress"
```
Find issues that did not have a status of 'In Progress' before 2nd February:
```
status WAS NOT "In Progress" BEFORE "2011/02/02"
```

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CHANGED

The "CHANGED" operator is used to find issues that have a value that had changed for the specified field.

This operator has the following optional predicates:

```
AFTER "date"
```
```
BEFORE "date"
```
```
BY "username"
```
```
DURING ("date1","date2")
```
```
ON "date"
```
```
FROM "oldvalue"
```
```
TO "newvalue"
```

(Note: This operator can be used with the Assignee, Fix Version, Priority, Reporter, Resolution, and Status fields only.)

Examples

Find issues whose assignee had changed:
```
assignee CHANGED
```
Find issues whose status had changed from 'In Progress' back to 'Open':
```
status CHANGED FROM "In Progress" TO "Open"
```
Find issues whose priority was changed by user 'freddo' after the start and before the end of the current week.
```
priority CHANGED BY freddo BEFORE endOfWeek() AFTER startOfWeek()
```

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