JQL operators

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

Examples

• Find all work items that were created by John Smith:

  reporter = "John Smith"

• Find all work items that were created by John Smith whose Atlassian account id is abcde-12345-fedcba:

  reporter = "abcde-12345-fedcba"

Not equals (!=)

The "!=" operator is used to search for work items 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.)

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 work items that have a component and the component is not "fred". To find work items 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 work items that are assigned to any user's Atlassian account id except John Smith's:

  not assignee = abcde-12345-fedcba

  or

  assignee != abcde-12345-fedcba

• Find all work items that are not assigned to John Smith's Atlassian account ID

  assignee != abcde-12345-fedcba or assignee is empty

• Find all work items that were reported by me but are not assigned to me:

  reporter = currentUser() and assignee != currentUser()

• Find all work items where the Reporter or Assignee is anyone except John Smith:

  assignee != "John Smith" or reporter != "John Smith"

• Find all work items where the Reports or Assignee is anyone except John Smith's:

  assignee != "John Smith" or reporter != "John Smith"

• Find all work items that are not unassigned:

  assignee is not empty

  or

  assignee != null

Greater than (>)

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

Examples

• Find all work items with more than 4 votes:

  votes > 4

• Find all overdue work items:

  duedate < now() and resolution is empty

• Find all work items where priority is higher than "Normal":

  priority > normal

Greater than equals (>=)

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

Examples

• Find all work items with 4 or more votes:

  votes >= 4

• Find all work items due on or after 31/12/2008:

  duedate >= "2008/12/31"

• Find all work items created in the last five days:

  created >= "-5d"

Less than (<)

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

Examples

• Find all work items with less than 4 votes:

  votes < 4

Less than equals (<=)

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

Examples

• Find all work items with 4 or fewer votes:

  votes <= 4

• Find all work items that have not been updated in the past month (30 days):

  updated <= "-4w 2d"

IN

The "IN" operator is used to search for work items 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 work items that were created by either jsmith or jbrown or jjones:

  reporter in (jsmith,jbrown,jjones)

• Find all work items that were created by John Smith, Jim Brown, or Jared Jones whose Atlassian account IDs are abcde-12345-fedcba or fedcb-12345-edcba or cdefb-67895-cbaed, respectively:

  reporter in (abcde-12345-fedcba,fedcb-12345-edcba,cdefb-67895-cbaed)

• Find all work items where the Reporter or Assignee is either Jack or Jill:

  reporter in (Jack,Jill) or assignee in (Jack,Jill)

• Find all work items where the Reporter or Assignee is either Jack or Jill whose Atlassian account IDs are abcde-12345-fedcba and cdefb-67895-cbaed, respectively:

  reporter in (abcde-12345-fedcba,cdefb-67895-cbaed) or assignee in (abcde-12345-fedcba,cdefb-67895-cbaed)

• Find all work items in version 3.14 or version 4.2:

  affectedVersion in ("3.14", "4.2")

NOT IN

The "NOT IN" operator is used to search for work items 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 work items that have an assignee and the assignee is not "jack" or "jill". To find work items 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 work items where the Assignee is someone other than Jack, Jill, or John:

  assignee not in (Jack,Jill,John)

• Find all work items where the Assignee is someone other than Jack, Jill, or John whose Atlassian account IDs are abcde-12345-fedcba or fedcb-12345-edcba or cdefb-67895-cbaed, respectively:

  assignee not in (abcde-12345-fedcba,fedcb-12345-edcba,cdefb-67895-cbaed)

• Find all work items where the Assignee is not Jack, Jill, or John:

  assignee not in (Jack,Jill,John) or assignee is empty

• Find all work items where the Assignee is not Jack, Jill, or John whose Atlassian account IDs are abcde-12345-fedcba or fedcb-12345-edcba or cdefb-67895-cbaed, respectively:

  assignee not in (abcde-12345-fedcba,fedcb-12345-edcba,cdefb-67895-cbaed) or assignee is empty

• Find all work items where the FixVersion is not 'A', 'B', 'C', or 'D':

  FixVersion not in (A, B, C, D)

• Find all work items 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

CONTAINS (~)

The "~" operator is used to search for work items 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 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

The JQL field "text" as in text ~ "some words" searches a work item’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 work items where the Summary contains the word "win" (or simple derivatives of that word, such as "wins"):

  summary ~ win

• Find all work items where the Summary contains a wild-card match for the word "win":

  summary ~ "win*"

• Find all work items where the Summary contains the word "work items" and the word "collector":

  summary ~ "workItem collector"

• Find all work items 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\""

DOES NOT CONTAIN (!~)

The "!~" operator is used to search for work items 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

• Comment*

• 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

*If the work item contains more than 1 comment, this operator will fail, because all comments will be included in the search.

The JQL field "text" as in text ~ "some words" searches a work item’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 work items where the Summary does not contain the word "run" (or derivatives of that word, such as "running" or "ran"):

  summary !~ run

IS

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

Examples

• Find all work items that have no Fix Version:

  fixVersion is empty

  or

  fixVersion is null

IS NOT

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

Examples

• Find all work items that have one or more votes:

  votes is not empty

  or

  votes is not null

WAS

The "WAS" operator is used to find work items 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" or BY (username1,username2)

• 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".

Examples

• Find work items that currently have or previously had a status of 'In Progress':

  status WAS "In Progress"

• Find work items that were resolved by Joe Smith before 2nd February:

  status WAS "Resolved" BY jsmith BEFORE "2019/02/02"

• Find work items that were resolved by Joe Smith, whose Atlassian account ID is abcde-12345-fedcba, before 2nd February:

  status WAS "Resolved" BY abcde-12345-fedcba BEFORE "2019/02/02"

• Find work items that were resolved by Joe Smith during 2010:

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

• Find work items that were resolved by Joe Smith, whose Atlassian account ID is abcde-12345-fedcba, during 2010:

  status WAS "Resolved" BY abcde-12345-fedcba DURING ("2010/01/01","2011/01/01")

• Find work items that were resolved by Joe Smith or Sam Rogen during 2019:

  status WAS "Resolved" BY (jsmith,srogen) DURING ("2019/01/01","2020/01/01")

WAS IN

The "WAS IN" operator is used to find work items 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".

Examples

• Find all work items that currently have, or previously had, a status of 'Resolved' or 'In Progress':

  status WAS IN ("Resolved","In Progress")

WAS NOT IN

The "WAS NOT IN" operator is used to search for work items 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".

Examples

• Find work items that have never had a status of 'Resolved' or 'In Progress':

  status WAS NOT IN ("Resolved","In Progress")

• Find work items 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"

WAS NOT

The "WAS NOT" operator is used to find work items 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".

Examples

• Find work items that do not have, and have never had a status of 'In Progress':

  status WAS NOT "In Progress"

• Find work items that did not have a status of 'In Progress' before 2nd February:

  status WAS NOT "In Progress" BEFORE "2011/02/02"

CHANGED

The "CHANGED" operator is used to find work items 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"

Examples

• Find work items whose assignee had changed:

  assignee CHANGED

• Find work items whose status had changed from 'In Progress' back to 'Open':

  status CHANGED FROM "In Progress" TO "Open"

• Find work items 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()