Anyone know of a doc/article reference for the "filter" jql function for jql syntax reference

[Jack Brickey]

I have played with this a bit on occasion but feel like I could benefit from some documentation and even examples of usage. I have been poking around Atlassian docs and Community and even Google but haven't turned up anything useful. It is sort of hard to come up w/ the right search terms for this w/o getting overwhelmed by "nope that's not it" references.

[Matt Doar · Accepted solution]

I see the documentation at https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/advanced-search-reference-jql-fields#Advancedsearching-fieldsreference-filter

I've seen subfilters used when you want to have a list of people in different filters and only make changes in one place. For example

Your first filter with example names in a  team:

assignee in (jsmith, bsmith, jko)

Save the filter with a name such as "MyTeamNameHereMembers"

In all the filters where you want to use that set of people:

filter = "MyTeamNameHereMembers" and project in (PKEY1, PKEY2, PKEY3)

[Matt Doar]

I've also seen it used in ScriptRunner JQL to find all the issues and sub-issues in an Epic in the past. Nested filters can have performance problems, and if uses as agile board filters Jira may not be able to work out which projects you need to have Manage Sprint permissions for

[Jack Brickey]

Thanks to all for your input and digging into the docs!

[Lars Mählmann]

Hi,

not a perfect answer but maybe it helps a bit. I found a JQL Cheat Sheet:

* https://3kllhk1ibq34qk6sp3bhtox1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/atlassian-jql-cheat-sheet-2.pdf

[Dave Liao]

@Jack Brickey - hey Jack! Can you elaborate a little more on what you're looking for?

(I can see how this would be fiddly to search for... )

[Jack Brickey]

i'm struggling w/ how to make it more clear other than I want some documentation on how one might leverage the JQL "filter" function. The challenge here I guess is that I don't have a scenario I'm trying to solve but rather just trying to see if there is any reference that might educate me to benefit in the future.

one obvious UC is to create a 'base' filter and then reference it for different filters so as to save you time in creating complex lengthy filters, e.g. complex date searches, etc.

[Dave Liao]

@Matt Doar - listed the official doc on "filter"! Props to him. :)

Reading it, and I learned something today: never thought about excluding filter results using "NOT IN" / != ... I'm excited to come up with a practical use for that.

[Jack Brickey]

yes this is exactly the unique use cases i'm think about. 

[Esther Strom]

I'm finding more and more ways the function can be useful. One way we use it is to allow a saved ScriptRunner enhanced search to be used in boards' quick filters and for doing swimlanes by JQL, since the custom JQL functions implemented by ScriptRunner can't be used directly in those cases.