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CONTAINS (~) does not seem to work when searching description?

Dan Temple1

I'm trying to use the ~ operator as per https://confluence.atlassian.com/jira/performing-text-searches-185729616.html

The description in my test issue is one line like this:

     It contains ABC=someWord_and_these_TOKENS and other text too.

Now if I search with:

  project = "GMX" AND Description ~ "ABC=someWord_and_these_TOKEN"

it finds my test issue. On the other hand, these do not work:

  project = "GMX" AND Description ~ "ABC=someWord_and_these_TOKE"

  project = "GMX" AND Description ~ "ABC=someWord_and_these_TOKE?"

  project = "GMX" AND Description ~ "ABC=someWord_and_these_TOKE*"

  project = "GMX" AND Description ~ "ABC=someWord_and_t?ese_TOKENS"

This seems baffling - these are pretty close to the examples in the documentation.

Version: Atlassian JIRA Project Management Software (v7.1.2#71006-sha1:8e7e309)

Accepted answers

Boris Georgiev [Appfire]

Hi Dan,

JIRA search will remove the underscore (_) character and will treat it as a whitespace https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRA-32441 https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRA-5567 so when you're searching for

"ABC=someWord_and_these_TOKE" for example it will try to find an issue that contains all the words - ABC=someWord, and, these, TOKE and will probably actually ignore and word https://confluence.atlassian.com/jira/performing-text-searches-185729616.html#PerformingTextSearches-Reservedwords

You can search for an exact phrase you need to quote the phrase like that "\"ABC=someWord_and_these_TOKENS\""

Also in some cases and might be considered as a boolean operator https://confluence.atlassian.com/jira/performing-text-searches-185729616.html#PerformingTextSearches-Booleanoperators

So it's a bit complicated as the text you're searching is actually split into phrases and a lot of rules apply.

Would you tell us what's the exact use case i.e. when having this phrase or similar "ABC=someWord_and_these_TOKENS and other text too" - what do you want to search for , so we can figure out the correct way to do that via JQL?

All comments

Meck

Hello Dan,

Maybe this will help you:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiracorecloud/advanced-searching-765593707.html

https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiracorecloud/search-syntax-for-text-fields-765593720.html

Regards,

Lameck.

Dan Temple1

Anything particular in them? They look like the standard information about searches, can't find anything that indicates that there should be something non-standard about my syntax?

Boris Georgiev [Appfire]

Hi Dan,

You can search for an exact phrase you need to quote the phrase like that "\"ABC=someWord_and_these_TOKENS\""

Also in some cases and might be considered as a boolean operator https://confluence.atlassian.com/jira/performing-text-searches-185729616.html#PerformingTextSearches-Booleanoperators

So it's a bit complicated as the text you're searching is actually split into phrases and a lot of rules apply.

Boris Georgiev [Appfire]

As a workaround you may consider using the Script Runner JQL function issuefieldmatch which allows you to match field value using regular expression and I think this will be much more reliable than the JIRA fuzzy search in this case where you've got special character to match.

https://scriptrunner.adaptavist.com/latest/jira/jql-functions.html#_issuefieldmatch

Dan Temple1

Thanks for an excellent explanation - looks like the underscores are to blame. My use case is in fact that I have to match the exact word (with underscores) - it is the formal name of a test - so the exact phrase matching looks like a solution even if the syntax is a bit clunky.

I'll take a look at issuefieldmatch too.

Dan Temple1

Hmm. I removed the and part of the token, to avoid confusion (and my use case will not have any ands in it). Also reduced to searching for the part after the =. However, the problem persists even if I quote the phrase, i.e.:

"\"someWord_these_TOKENS\""

..matches, whereas any partial or wild-carded version does not match. So I think the fuzzy search is just not going to work.

robert.stenitzer@logicx.at

Hi!
I did ran in the same topic with the requirement to search for an text containing several underscores.

I also tried the descripted escaping "\"someWord_these_TOKENS\"" with no result.

Are there any updates, additional infos available how to overcome this problem?

any help is appreciated

Christopher_Siege

Also having a lot of frustrations with searching issues that have underscores in issue description.

Sergio Bobillier

Having exactly the same issue with the same use case, I'm searching for a Test Case name which contains underscores in the contents of a text field.

I still don't understand how can JIRA have such a poor search engine. I mean, JIRA is normally used by developing teams, searching for words with underscores is just a part of every developer's daily life.

Sven Rollinger

Yes, I think the same!!

Daniel Tinarwo

Hey,

I also ran into the same issue, but it's saying that the operator isn't supposed by the field.

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