In Magic Estimations for Jira Cloud we developed the issue selection page based on popular JQL (Jira Query Language) which is the most powerful and flexible way to search for your issues in Jira.

This guide has been created to assist in case problems with specific queries.

Jira Query

Queries are a series of simple elements strung together to form a more complex question. A query has three basic parts: fields, operators, and values.

• Field

  – Fields are different types of information in the system. Jira fields include priority, fixVersion, issue type, etc.

• Operator

  – Operators are the heart of the query. They relate the field to the value. Common operators include equals (=), not equals (!=), less than (<), etc.

• Value – Values are the actual data in the query. They are usually the item for which we are looking.

• Keyword

  – Keywords are specific words in the language that have special meaning like AND and OR.

Quick example:

  project = "TEST"

where

• project is the field

• = is the operator

• TEST is the value

Fields

Almost any type of information that characterizes an issue might be used as the field in JQL. Just remember to take multi-word fields in quotes and you’re good to go!

"Story Points" >= 5

Operators

An operator in JQL is one or more symbols or words that 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.

List of Operators:

• EQUALS: =

• NOT EQUALS: !=

• GREATER THAN: >

• GREATER THAN EQUALS: >=

• LESS THAN: <

• LESS THAN EQUALS: <=

• IN

• NOT IN

• CONTAINS: ~

• DOES NOT CONTAIN: !~

• IS

• IS NOT

• WAS

• WAS IN

• WAS NOT IN

• WAS NOT

• CHANGED

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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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 CONTAIN ("!~") 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. Cannot be used with text fields.

Note that the ">" operator can only be used with fields that support ordering (e.g. date fields and version fields).

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 searching for issues where the value of the specified field is greater than or equal to the specified value. Cannot be used with text fields.

Note that the ">=" operator can only be used with fields that support ordering (e.g. date fields and version fields).

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. Cannot be used with text fields.

Note that the "<" operator can only be used with fields that support ordering (e.g. date fields and version fields).

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 the specified value. Cannot be used with text fields.

Note that the "<=" operator can only be used with fields which support ordering (e.g. date fields and version fields).

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 the 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 the 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 text fields only, i.e.:

• Summary

• Description

• Environment

• Comments

• custom fields which 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

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"

Examples

• Find all issues where the Summary contains the word "win" (or simple derivatives of that word, such as "wins"):

  summary ~ win

• 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 Reserved Characters for details on how to escape quote-marks and other special characters):

  summary ~ "\"full screen\""

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DOES NOT CONTAIN: !~

The "!~" operator is used to search for issues where the value of the specified field is not a "fuzzy" match for the specified value. For use with text fields only, i.e.:

• Summary

• Description

• Environment

• Comments

• custom fields which 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

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"

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

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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.

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.

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 has 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 which 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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Keywords

A keyword in JQL is a word or phrase that does (or is) any of the following:

• joins two or more clauses together to form a complex JQL query

• alters the logic of one or more clauses

• alters the logic of operators

• has an explicit definition in a JQL query

• performs a specific function that alters the results of a JQL query.

List of Keywords:

• AND

• OR

• NOT

• EMPTY

• NULL

• ORDER BY

AND

Used to combine multiple clauses, allowing you to refine your search.

Note that you can use parentheses to control the order in which clauses are executed.

Examples

• Find all open issues in the "New office" project:

  project = "New office" and status = "open"

• Find all open, urgent issues that are assigned to jsmith:

  status = open and priority = urgent and assignee = jsmith

• Find all issues in a particular project that are not assigned to jsmith:

  project = JRA and assignee != jsmith

• Find all issues for a specific release which consists of different version numbers across several projects:

  project in (JRA,CONF) and fixVersion = "3.14"

• Find all issues where neither the Reporter nor the Assignee is Jack, Jill or John:

  reporter not in (Jack,Jill,John) and assignee not in (Jack,Jill,John)

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OR

Used to combine multiple clauses, allowing you to expand your search.

Note that you can use parentheses to control the order in which clauses are executed.

(Note: also see IN, which can be a more convenient way to search for multiple values of a field.)

Examples

• Find all issues that were created by either jsmith or jbrown:

  reporter = jsmith or reporter = jbrown

• Find all issues that are overdue or where no due date is set:

  duedate < now() or duedate is empty

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NOT

Used to negate individual clauses or a complex JQL query (a query made up of more than one clause) using parentheses, allowing you to refine your search.

Examples

• Find all issues that are assigned to any user except jsmith:

  not assignee = jsmith

• Find all issues that were not created by either jsmith or jbrown:

  not (reporter = jsmith or reporter = jbrown)

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EMPTY

Used to search for issues where a given field does not have a value. See also NULL.

Note that EMPTY can only be used with fields that support the IS and IS NOT operators.

⚠ EMPTY is not equivalent to NOT EQUALS (!=) 

Examples

• Find all issues without a DueDate:

  duedate = empty

  or

  duedate is empty

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NULL

Used to search for issues where a given field does not have a value. See also EMPTY.

Note that NULL can only be used with fields that support the IS and IS NOT operators.

Examples

• Find all issues without a DueDate:

  duedate = null

  or

  duedate is null

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ORDER BY

Used to specify the fields by whose values the search results will be sorted.

By default, the field's own sorting order will be used. You can override this by specifying ascending order ("asc") or descending order ("desc").

Examples

• Find all issues without a DueDate, sorted by CreationDate:

  duedate = empty order by created 

• Find all issues without a DueDate, sorted by CreationDate, then by Priority (highest to lowest):

  duedate = empty order by created, priority desc

• Find all issues without a DueDate, sorted by CreationDate, then by Priority (lowest to highest):

  duedate = empty order by created, priority asc

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Request help

If you still have JQL related questions, let us know on support@tech-5.com