Search Query Syntax
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This page provides information on how to perform advanced searches.
(Note that this page does not apply to Quick Search.)
JIRA uses Lucene for text indexing. Lucene provides a rich query language; thanks to
Jakarta and the Lucene team for such a great component. Most of the information on this
page is derived from the Lucene document on Query Parser Syntax.
Note
If you're an administrator looking for information on
enabling and disabling indexing and searching within JIRA,
look here.
Query Terms
A query is broken up into terms and operators. There are two types of terms:
Single Terms and Phrases.
A Single Term is a single word such as "test" or "hello".
A Phrase is a group of words surrounded by double quotes such as "hello
dolly".
Multiple terms can be combined together with Boolean operators to form a more complex query (see below).
Note: All query terms in JIRA are case insensitive.
Term Modifiers
JIRA supports modifying query terms to provide a wide range of searching options.
Wildcard Searches
JIRA supports single and multiple character wildcard searches.
To perform a single character wildcard search use the "?" symbol.
To perform a multiple character wildcard search use the "*" symbol.
The single character wildcard search looks for terms that match that with the single character replaced. For
example, to search for "text" or "test" you can use the search:
te?t
Multiple character wildcard searches looks for 0 or more characters. For example, to search for
Windows, Win95 or WindowsNT you can use the search:
win*
You can also use the wildcard searches in the middle of a term. For example, to search for Win95
or Windows95 you can use the search
wi*95
Note
You cannot use a * or ? symbol as the first character of a search.
Fuzzy Searches
JIRA supports fuzzy searches. To do a fuzzy search use the tilde, "~", symbol at the end of a
Single word Term. For example to search for a term similar in spelling to "roam" use the fuzzy
search:
roam~
This search will find terms like foam and roams
Note: Terms found by the fuzzy search will automatically get a boost factor of 0.2
Proximity Searches
JIRA supports finding words are a within a specific distance away. To do a proximity search use the tilde,
"~", symbol at the end of a Phrase. For example to search for a "atlassian" and
"jira" within 10 words of each other in a document use the search:
"atlassian jira"~10
Boosting a Term
JIRA provides the relevance level of matching documents based on the terms found. To boost a term use the
caret, "^", symbol with a boost factor (a number) at the end of the term you are searching. The
higher the boost factor, the more relevant the term will be.
Boosting allows you to control the relevance of a document by boosting its term. For example, if you are
searching for
atlassian jira
and you want the term "atlassian" to be more relevant boost it using the ^ symbol
along with the boost factor next to the term. You would type:
atlassian^4 jira
This will make documents with the term atlassian appear more relevant. You can also boost Phrase Terms as in
the example:
"atlassian jira"^4 querying
By default, the boost factor is 1. Although, the boost factor must be positive, it can be less than 1 (i.e.
.2)
Boolean Operators
Boolean operators allow terms to be combined through logic operators. JIRA supports AND, "+", OR, NOT and "-"
as Boolean operators .
Note
Boolean operators must be ALL CAPS.
OR
The OR operator is the default conjunction operator. This means that if there is no Boolean operator between
two terms, the OR operator is used. The OR operator links two terms and finds a matching document if either
of the terms exist in a document. This is equivalent to a union using sets. The symbol || can be
used in place of the word OR.
To search for documents that contain either "atlassian jira" or just "jira" use the
query:
"atlassian jira" || jira
or
"atlassian jira" OR jira
AND
The AND operator matches documents where both terms exist anywhere in the text of a single document. This is
equivalent to an intersection using sets. The symbol && can be used in place of the word
AND.
To search for documents that contain "atlassian jira" and "issue tracking" use the
query:
"atlassian jira" AND "issue tracking"
Required term: +
The "+" or required operator requires that the term after the "+" symbol exist
somewhere in a the field of a single document.
To search for documents that must contain "jira" and may contain "atlassian" use
the query:
+jira atlassian
NOT
The NOT operator excludes documents that contain the term after NOT. This is equivalent to a difference
using sets. The symbol ! can be used in place of the word NOT.
To search for documents that contain "atlassian jira" but not "japan" use the
query:
"atlassian jira" NOT "japan"
Note: The NOT operator cannot be used with just one term. For example, the following search will return
no results:
NOT "atlassian jira"
Note
Usage of the NOT operator over multiple fields may return results that include the specified
excluded term. This is due to the fact that the search query is executed over each field in turn and the result
set for each field is combined to form the final result set. Hence, an issue that matches the search query based on
one field, but fails based on another field, will be included in the search result set.
Excluded term: -
The "-" or prohibit operator excludes documents that contain the term after the "-"
symbol.
To search for documents that contain "atlassian jira" but not "japan" use the
query:
"atlassian jira" -japan
Grouping
JIRA supports using parentheses to group clauses to form sub queries. This can be very useful if you want to
control the boolean logic for a query.
To search for either "atlassian" or "jira" and "bugs" use the query:
bugs AND (atlassian OR jira)
This eliminates any confusion and makes sure you that bugs must exist and either term
atlassian or jira may exist.
Note
Do not use the grouping character '(' at the start of a search query, as this will result in an error.
For example, "(atlassian OR jira) AND bugs" will not work.
