JQL not returning work items with numbers in summary in Jira Cloud
Platform Notice: Cloud Only - This article only applies to Atlassian apps on the cloud platform.
Summary
Work items in Jira are created with a combination of text and numbers in the summary.
Searching for these work items via their summary in JQL doesn't consistently return them in search results.
Solution
Use the * wildcard in JQL
In our example, there are several Jira work items with summaries like ABC_123, ABC_456, and so on.
The below JQL will not return the expected issues properly.
summary ~ "ABC_" ORDER BY created DESC Instead, if we add the * wildcard character, we will get more consistent results, including our desired work items.
summary ~ "ABC_*" ORDER BY created DESC Please refer to JRACLOUD-31882 Inconsistent behavior with contains operator for further details on this scenario.
Updated on April 21, 2026
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