Query Fields, Operators, Values, and Variables (Team Explorer Everywhere)

When you create a query to search for work items, you can define one or more clauses that identify the set of work items that you want to find. For each clause, you can specify a field, an operator, and a value or variable. For example, you can search for all work items in a particular team project by specifying the Team Project field, the equals (=) operator, and the name of the team project as the value. Instead of specifying a value, you can specify a variable such as @Project, which represents the current team project.

The following table shows a sample query clause:

For more general information about queries, see Finding Bugs, Tasks, and Other Work Items (Team Explorer Everywhere). For information about how to navigate within the query editor or query view by using keyboard shortcuts, see Keyboard Shortcuts for the Query Editor and Query Results View (TEE).

In this topic

• And/Or

• Query Fields and Values

• Query Operators

• Query Variables

Checklist for how to define a query clause:

1. In the first empty row, click under the Field column heading, click the down arrow to display the list of available fields, and click an item in the list.

   For more information, see Query Fields and Values.

2. In the same row, click under the Operator column heading, click the down arrow to display the list of available operators, and click an item in the list.

   For more information, see Query Operators.

3. In the same row, click under the Value column heading.

4. Type a value, or click the down arrow, and click an item in the list.

   For more information about how to use variables to specify the current team project, user, or date, see Query Variables.

5. To add a clause, click * in the left-most column.

   Note

   You must populate the fields of the added clause before you can add a second clause.

   You can add a clause to the end of the query or between existing clauses, and you can remove, group, and ungroup clauses as needed. You can also copy and paste the contents of a clause to another location. For more information, see Specify Query Criteria.

And/Or

You can use this column to specify how clauses are tested. You specify And if you want to find work items that meet the criteria in both this clause and the previous clause. You can specify Or if you want to find work items that meet the criterion in either this clause or the previous clause.

Query Fields and Values

When you specify a value for each field, the value must conform to the data type of that field. All fields in Team Foundation have one of the data types listed in the following table:

Query Operators

You can use query operators in the following table to specify how each value in a clause must relate to the corresponding value in a work item.

Query operator	Returns work items if the value in the work item matches the criteria listed	Applicable field types
=	Matches the value in the clause.	Number, Text, Date, Tree
<>	Does not match the value in the clause.	Number, Text, Date, Tree
>	Is more than the value in the clause.	Number, Text, Date
<	Is less than the value in the clause	Number, Text, Date
>=	Is more than or equal to the value in the clause.	Number, Text, Date
<=	Is less than or equal to the value in the clause.	Number, Text, Date
=[Field]	Matches the value that is contained in the specified field.	Any field that is of the same data type as the specified field
<>[Field]	Does not match the value that is contained in the specified field.	Any field that is of the same data type as the specified field
>[Field]	Is more than the value that is contained in the specified field.	Any field that is of the same data type as the specified field
<[Field]	Is less than the value that is contained in the specified field.	Any field that is of the same data type as the specified field
>=[Field]	Is more than or equal to the value that is contained in the specified field.	Any field that is of the same data type as the specified field
<=[Field]	Is less than or equal to the value that is contained in the specified field.	Any field that is of the same data type as the specified field
Contains	Contains the text value in the clause.	Text
Does Not Contain	Does not contain the text value in the clause.	Text
In	Matches any value in a comma-delimited set. For example, you can find work items whose IDs are 100, 101, and 102 if you specify those values for the ID field.	Number, Text, Date, Tree
In Group	Matches a value that is a member of the group in the clause. For example, you can use this field to find all work items that are assigned to any member of a distribution list.	String or the name of a category group Note You can use the In Group operator with only those fields that use the String data type or the Work Item Type field. For information about category groups, see the following page: Grouping Work Item Types into Categories.
Not in Group	Does not match any values that are members of the group in the clause.	String or the name of a category group Note You can use the Not In Group operator with only those fields that use the String data type or the Work Item Type field. For information about category groups, see the following page: Grouping Work Item Types into Categories.
Was Ever	Matches the value in the clause at any previous point.	Text, Date
Under	Matches the value in the clause or is contained under the node in the clause.	Tree
Not Under	Does not match the value in the clause and is not contained under the node in the clause.	Tree

Query Variables

You can use the variables in the following table to find work items that relate to the current user, the current project, or the current date.

See Also

Tasks

Specify Query Criteria

Add, Remove, Reorder, and Sort Columns (Team Explorer Everywhere)

Save, Copy, Rename, and Delete Work Item Queries (Team Explorer Everywhere)

List Work Items (Default Flat List) (Team Explorer Everywhere)

Other Resources

Finding Bugs, Tasks, and Other Work Items (Team Explorer Everywhere)

Sharing Work Items and Queries with Team Members (Team Explorer Everywhere)