Is there a way to use a CONTAINS operator with "Epic Link" in JQL?

Question

I want to get a list of stories that are contained in several different epics, and all the epics start with the same keyword. Is there any way to use a CONTAINS operator with "Epic Link"?

If I type in the advanced search field, after typing "Epic Link", JQL only shows me EQUALS, IS, and IN operators (and the 'not' versions). It doesn't have CONTAINS.

If I use the basic search, I can select the "More" dropdown and select "Epic Link", and then type "foo - " in the dialog that comes up and it will give me a list of all epic links that start with "foo -". I can check the ones I want. The result is the list of stories that I'm interested in. That's great.

If I then switch from basic to advanced, the resulting JQL is:

issuetype = Story AND "Epic Link" in (PROJECT_NAME-1, PROJECT_NAME-2, PROJECT_NAME-3)

So, in basic mode, it knew how to find all Epic Links that started with "foo -" because it gave me a list. But the end result was an IN operator with the epic links listed out. If another epic link gets created that has "foo -" in the name, I don't want to have to update my JQL with another PROJECT_NAME-XXX. I just want something like:

issuetype = Story AND "Epic Link" ~ "foo -"

James Kennedy_ha3yeh · Answer

"Epic Filter" alows you to search for text on the Epic Link title.  Then you can remove the EPIC from the list by doing an issuetype != Epic
"Epic Filter" ~ "Search String In Epic Name" AND issuetype != Epic

I didn't want any SubTasks, so I also added "AND issuetype != Sub-task".  You can filter out anyother types of issuetypes you want this way.
"Epic Filter" ~ "Search String In Epic Name" AND issuetype != Epic AND issuetype != Sub-task

To answer the Original Poster Question, use:
issuetype = Story AND "Epic Filter" ~ "foo -"

Nodas Anastasiou · Answer

project =xxxx AND issuetype = Epic AND text ~ "xxxx" ORDER BY priority DESC, updated DESC worked for me :)

Randy_dyxb6i · Answer

Not with the standard JQL functionality but you might be able to with the ScriptRunner Scripted JQL feature:

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