Filter Expressions

About Filter Expressions

A filter expression is a special type of expression that is used to search for records. Filter expressions are used in:

• Views
• Report Filters
• Lookup Filters
• Developer APIs

• JAVA APIs
• REST APIs (Also used for AJAX and REST.)

The Filter Expression Builder is used to define an expression, using a combination of fields, values, comparison operators, and logical operators. The resulting expression is used to evaluate a group of records. Records that match the specified criteria are returned.

Building Filter Expressions

Components of a filter expression are: <FIELD_NAME> <COMPARISION_OPERATOR> <VALUE> <LOGICAL_OPERATOR>

FIELD_NAME

The name of the Field or Computed Field to use in creating a filter.

COMPARISON OPERATOR

The following operators are available in a filter expression:

Operator	Description
equals	Returns only records with the specified value
not equal to	Returns only records that do not include the specified value
less than	Returns only records that are less than the specified value
less than equals	Returns only records that are less than or equal to the specified value
greater than	Returns only records that are more than the specified value
greater than equals	Returns only records that are more than or equal to the specified value
contains	Returns only records that contain the specified value
not contains	Returns only records that do not contain the specified value
starts with	Returns only records that start with the specified value
ends with	Returns only records that end with the specified value

FIELD_VALUE

The search value - a string, a date, a number.

Examples:

String: 'Paper 123'

Date: '06/06/2007'

Numeric Value: 9383

Empty Field: '' or BLANK

Follow these guidelines when specifying values:

• The value can be partial text or whole words

• Enclose strings and date/time values in 'single quotes'

• To specify date values, use the Date Format as specified in Company Information

• To search for a blank (empty) string, use two single quotes, with nothing between them ('').

• To search for a blank (empty) field of other kinds, use a field value of BLANK

• To search for multiple field values, separate each value using vertical pipe (|)

For example: company_name='Acme|Ajax'

(The criteria is satisfied when the company name is either Acme or Ajax)

• To search for a field value that happens to contain a vertical pipe (|), you need to "escape" the pipe so it is recognized as a literal character in the field. To do that, you put a backslash in front of it: \|. For example, company_name contains '\|'

• That works in REST APIs and in the GUI.
• In Java strings, the backslash is already an escape character. (It combines with the one that follows it to create a single character.)
• So in Java code, you need two backslashes: \\|

(The first two (\\) combine to become a single backslash (\), so the filter expression handler sees "\|", as desired.)

• Finally, note that "equals" does not work for this particular search. The required operator is "contains".

• To include a single quote in the value that you are searching for, specify an additional quote for every single quote ('').

For example in business rules, in the execution criteria use the single quote as listed in the following images:

• When specified conditions are true:

• When specified expression is true:

LOGICAL_OPERATOR

Logical operators can be used to build more complex expressions.

The logical operators are:

AND

OR

Considerations

• Two subexpressions joined by a logical operator form a logical expression.
• Logical expressions resolve to a Boolean value: 1/0 or TRUE/FALSE.
• Use parentheses--()--to group expressions logically and to join multiple expressions.
• Parentheses are used in pairs; each open parenthesis "(" requires a closing parenthesis ")".
• For example:

((<expression1> AND <expression2>) OR (<expression3> AND <expression_4>))

Learn more: Using Logical Operators and Parentheses