Dave Herrell

Jira Query Language (JQL) is your secret weapon for mastering Jira. This potent tool lets you effortlessly filter, sort, and manipulate data within your Jira instance, whether you’re juggling projects, tracking support tickets, or analyzing complex workflows.

By learning JQL, you’ll streamline your workflow and gain valuable insights into your data. This guide will introduce you to the fundamentals of JQL and provide practical examples to help you filter tickets with precision. Let’s dive in!

What is JQL?

Jira Query Language (JQL) is more than just a search tool; it’s a powerful way to precisely pinpoint and organize issues within Jira. By crafting custom queries, you can:

• Target Specific Issues: Filter issues based on criteria like status, assignee, priority, and more.
• Build Complex Searches: Combine conditions using AND, OR, and NOT operators to create intricate filters.
• Customize Your View: Sort and order results to prioritize or categorize your work efficiently.

Even if you’re not a coding expert, JQL’s simplicity and Jira-specific nature make it easy to learn and use.

Let’s Get Started!

To begin our JQL journey, click your mouse within the Search bar and navigate to the bottom to select View All Issues.  To the left of the search area, click on JQL this will switch the search bar to the JQL format. This is where the magic happens! You can now enter JQL queries to refine your search results.

Basic JQL Queries

Let’s explore some fundamental JQL queries to grasp the basics:

• Find Issues by Status

status = "In Progress"

• • • This query will return all issues with the status “In Progress.”
• Find Issues Assigned to You

assignee = currentUser()

• • • This query will show all issues assigned to the currently logged-in user. It’s great for creating personal dashboards!

• Filter by Project

project = "IT Support"

• • • This query will return all issues in the “IT Support” project.

• Combine Conditions with AND

project = "IT Support" AND status = "Open" AND priority = "High"

• • • Here, you’re filtering issues that are in the “IT Support” project, have a status of “Open,” and a high priority.

• Find Issues by Date Range

created >= startOfMonth() AND created <= endOfMonth()

• • • This query finds all issues created in the current month. JQL offers a range of date functions, like startOfWeek(), endOfDay(), -1w, and more, so you can filter by dynamic time ranges.

• Using Wildcards in Text Searches

summary ~ "login*"

• • • The ~ operator performs a “contains” search, useful for finding tickets with keywords. In this case, it will find issues with summaries that contain “login.”

• Order By for Sorting

project = "IT Support" AND status = "Open" ORDER BY priority DESC, created ASC

• • • This query finds all open issues in the “IT Support” project, orders them by priority (highest to lowest), and then by creation date (oldest first). Use sorting to help prioritize the work you see.

• Group Issues Using Labels

labels in ("urgent", "client")

• • • If you’re using labels like “urgent” or “client” to mark important issues, this query will return all issues tagged with those labels.

• Filter by Custom Fields

"Customer Type" = "VIP"

• • • Custom fields can be referenced in JQL if you’ve set them up. In this case, a custom field called “Customer Type” with the value “VIP” is used to filter out specific client issues.

Ok, so there are some basic JQL queries to get you started. Let’s dive into some practical JQL query examples to see how you can leverage this powerful tool in your daily work.

Practical Use Cases

• Daily Stand-Up Filter

assignee = currentUser() AND (status = "In Progress" OR status = "To Do")

• • • This filter shows you all tasks assigned to you that are either in progress or in the to-do list – perfect for a quick stand-up check.

• Find Overdue Tickets

due < now() AND resolution = Unresolved

• • • This query helps you find overdue tickets by identifying any unresolved issues with a due date in the past.

• Monitor SLA Compliance (Jira Service Management)

"Time to resolution" < remaining() AND resolution = Unresolved

• • • Use this query to monitor SLA compliance by showing unresolved tickets with remaining SLA time below the threshold.

Tips for Using JQL Efficiently