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JQL search using a label

Mark Thompson_lzcdc8

This is a very simple query that just doesn't seem to work in Jira. Any help as to why these searches would not return a complete list would be appreciated.

I've used the following two queries and they work fine by selecting items from a list:

labels != Group_Testing - returns hundreds of issues

fixVersion = 2016.13 - returns 30+ issues

The following queries all return a single issue:

labels != Group_Testing AND fixVersion = 2016.13

fixVersion = 2016.13 AND labels != Group_Testing

fixVersion = "2016.13" AND (labels not in(Group_Testing))

fixVersion = 2016.13 AND labels not in (Group_Testing)

fixVersion = 2016.13 AND labels !~ Group_Testing (Not supported which is kind of annoying)

Accepted answers

All comments

Jobin Kuruvilla [Adaptavist]

Why do you think it is not working? Are there other issues with label "Group_Testing" with fixVersion as "2016.13"?

Looks like there is only one issue satisfying both conditions?

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-

I think this is down to the difference between "label is not" and "label is empty".

When an issue has no labels, it does not pass the test "label is not", because there's nothing to compare. I answered a question that was similar earlier, and blamed human language structures - most of our languages are unclear on the difference between null, empty and filled, and they discourage us from being clear enough for the computers to understand us.

The short version - try adding "labels is empty" to the "nots".

(labels != Group_Testing OR labels is empty) AND fixVersion = 2016.13

(fixVersion = 2016.13 OR labels is empty) AND labels != Group_Testing

and so-on

Mark Thompson_lzcdc8

It's the != and Not In items that are not working. I can do a search of labels = Group_Testing AND fixVersion = 2016.13 which returns 12 issues. You would think changing = to != or Not in would then remove those 12 items and leave the remaining 23 but it does not.

Jobin Kuruvilla [Adaptavist]

Ah. As Nic mentioned, you need to also search for issues that doesn't have a label. "!=" searches for issues with labels, but not matching to given label, only.

Mark Thompson_lzcdc8

This is a horrible implementation. labels != Group_Testing should return anything that doesn't have a group testing label

(labels != Group_Testing OR labels is empty) AND fixVersion = 2016.13 will return more results but will not return all results.

Let us just say I have multiple labels (which I do). I'd have to do the following query

(labels != Group_Testing OR labels is empty OR labels = projectx OR labels = projecty) AND fixVersion = 2016.13

This may get a few more issues but not all the issues. Lets say a project doesn't have a label field in the JIRA implementation. The fix version can be found but "labels is empty" won't return project tickets that don't have a label field. I think I'm in trouble because I don't see a way to add "field doesn't exist" to my query. It's what I'm stuck with. I'll probably have to add the label field to all instances. I still think the JIRA implementation of this search is painful at best.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-

It's not the implementation, it's the problem that humans are fuzzy thinkers. Fuzzy thinking is imaginative, creative and inventive. But it's unclear and imprecise, and utterly useless for computers.

You're assuming you don't need to explain the exact query to the computer, but computers can't read your mind (yet). So you need to be precise.

The implementation does work for "field does not exist". That is not quite technically the same as "field has nothing in it", but the result does work. "is empty" will fetch both "empty" and "field isn't even there" results.

Mark Thompson_lzcdc8

I thank you for the first answer but really? You can call the sky green all you like but if it looks blue to me than it's blue....8-) is empty is not gathering "field isn't there" for me. Every bug that doesn't display for me is missing the label field in the field configuration. All the items with a label field work fine with the != and is empty query. There may be another term besides is empty that might find it but is empty is not working for our configuration.

Marie Robinson_j4maf7

this works for me. I hide any story with archive as a label but all other stories show whether they have labels or not

labels != archive AND labels is not EMPTY OR labels is EMPTY

Roger Spooner

Obviously Jira is not working satisfactorily for users like us (who comment on this thread). This problem has just cost my project a lot in lost issues, because we relied on labels to prioritise work.

It seems to me that the problem is that "labels" is a list of values but the JQL syntax pretends that it is a single value which can match something I specify in a query (labels = special). When we start trying to match any member of a list in my query (labels in (special,boring)) or NOT in my list, it no longer means anything like what it appears to.

To fix this, I think Atlassian needs to extend the JQL syntax to recognise the various operators we need to match a list of labels with a list of queries.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-

There's a whole other conversation to be had about how "using labels to prioritise" is a really terrible idea, especially as Jira deliberately has many better ways to do it.

But I am commenting to question how you think "recognising various operators" would work? What operators do you think you need and why?

Roger Spooner

The operators I would like are something like:

at least one label needs to be in this list (special, interesting)
at least one label needs to be the value "special"
none of the following list may be labels: (irrelevant, boring, obsolete)
there must not be the label "boring"
the list of labels must exactly match this list: (special, feasible, releasable)
all of the following must be labels: (special, feasible, releasable)
there must be more than 3 labels.
there must be 0 labels.
The syntax discussed above about empty lists of labels, and queries for issues where labels cannot exist, should be merged with the negative operators where a label should not exist. i.e. if there are no labels on an issue, then clearly any particular label I maybe interested in is not present.

Jira has other weaknesses about priorities which also need fixing. For example when I sort a table of searched issues by priority, they appear in the order blocker, critical, major, minor, normal, urgent, trivial, undefined. Perhaps it thinks it's an unordered list of enums?

I don't actually use labels as priority rankings. I use them to filter issues that need to be resolved.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-

Those are not search operators, they are usage rules. Most of which you can already form searches for when you're looking for enforcement.

Additionally, most of the usage you've listed there is not what labels are for. You should be using the workflow and system fields for most of what you've defined.

I'd suggest revising how you're using Jira, it sounds like you're expecting labels to do a load of stuff that you should be doing with other functions.

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