Query Fields, Operators, Values, and Variables

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Visual Studio Team System

[This topic is pre-release documentation and is subject to change in future releases. Blank topics are included as placeholders.]

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.

Sample query clause

And/Or	Field	Operator	Value
And	Team Project	=	@Project

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

Topic Contents:

And/Or
Query Fields and Values
Query Operators
Query Variables

Checklist for how to define a query clause:

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.
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 Operators.
In the same row, click under the Value column heading.
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 Variables.
To add a clause, click Click here to add a new clause.
You can add a clause to the end of the query, insert a clause after an existing clause (), and remove (), group (), and ungroup () clauses as needed. You can also copy and paste the contents of a clause to a new location. For more information, see Specify Query Filter Criteria.

And/Or

You can use this column to specify how clauses are tested. You can 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:

Data type	Data stored
DateTime	A Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) moment in time. You can specify a variable, such as @Today or @Today-1, or a value, such as 1/1/2009.
Double	A real number, such as 0.2 or 3.5.
GUID	A character string that represents a unique ID.
HTML	Text strings that support formatted descriptions.
Integer	A 32-bit integer that is signed, such as 0, 1, 2, 34.
PlainText	Text strings that support long descriptions, such as the Description or History fields are defined for a work item. You can find work items based on a phrase or keyword that is contained within a PlainText field.
String	Text string that contains up to 255 Unicode characters.
TreePath	A branching tree structure, such as an Area Path or Iteration path. You must click an item in a list of valid values. You can find work items that equal or are under a tree structure.

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 larger than the value in the clause.	Number, Text, Date
<	Is less than the value in the clause	Number, Text, Date
>=	Is larger 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	Name of a 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	Name of a field that is of the same data type as the specified field
>[Field]	Is larger than the value that is contained in the specified field	Name of a 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	Name of a field that is of the same data type as the specified field
>=[Field]	Is larger than or equal to the value that is contained in the specified field	Name of a 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	Name of a 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 specify a distribution list for the Assigned To field in a query, and all work items that are assigned to a member of that distribution list are found.	String or the name of a category group Note You can only use the In Group operator with fields that use the String data type or the Work Item Type field. For information about category groups, see Grouping Work Item Types into Categories.
Not in Group	Does not match a value that is a member to the group in the clause. You can only use the Not in Group operator with fields that use the Identity data type or the Work Item Type field.	String or the name of a category group Note You can only use the Not In Group operator with fields that use the String data type or the Work Item Type field. For information about category groups, see 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.

Query variable	Usage
@Me	Use this variable to automatically search for the current user's alias in a field that contains user aliases. For example, you can find work items that you opened if you set the Field column to Activated By, the Operator column to =, and the Value column to @Me.
@Project	Use this variable to search for work items in the current team project. For example, you can find all the work items in the current team project if you set the Field column to Team Project, the Operator column to =, and the Value column to @Project.
@Today	Use this variable to search for work items that relate to the current date or to an earlier date. You can also modify the @Today variable by subtracting days. For example, you can find all items activated in the last week if you set the Field column to Activated Date, the Operator column to >=, and the Value column to @Today - 7.
[Any]	Use this variable to search for work items that relate to any value that is defined for a particular field.

Tasks

Concepts

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