Strange JQL filtering behavior

Question

Hello all,

I am facing some strange JQL behavior, and I am not sure how to proceed.

There are two boards, and I have a goal of achieving the following behavior:

Board 1 shows ONLY epics, and ONLY epics that have specific values in one of the issue fields (We call it Epic Type).

Board 2 should show everything else (stories, tasks, etc.) and all epics that don't meet the requirements of the first board.

So far, I've had the following queries:

1. in project = CAT and type = Epic and Epic Type(Dropdown) IN (value one, value two)

This query works fine.

2. in project = CAT and Epic Type(Dropdown) NOT IN (value one, value two)

This query shows zero results.

I know I'm obviously missing something, but hopefully a fresh pair of eyes can help out.

Thanks,

Sam

Jack Nolddor [Sweet Bananas] · Accepted Answer

project = CAT and ( "Epic Type Dropdown" NOT IN (value1, value2) OR "Epic Type Dropdown" IS EMPTY )

Trudy P Claspill · Accepted Answer

Your second filter is constrained to only the issues that have the Epic Type field, and further constrained to the issues that have a value in that field. As @Jack Nolddor [Sweet Bananas]  posted, you need to check additionally for issues where that field is empty (assuming it is possible for the field to be empty.

Additionally, if the Epic Type field is not assigned to your other issue types (i.e. Stories), you need to add the collecting of those issue types to your filter:

project = CAT and (( "Epic Type Dropdown" NOT IN (value1, value2) OR "Epic Type Dropdown" IS EMPTY ) or issueType !=Epic)