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Work Item Query Language (WIQL) syntax reference

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TFS 2018

You can use the WIQL syntax to define a query as a hyperlink or when using the Work Item Query Language (REST API).

The WIQL syntax supports all functions available through the web portal Query Editor plus a few more. You can specify the fields to return and specify logical grouping of query clauses. In addition, you can use an ASOF clause to filter based on assignments based on a previous date.

Important

The WIQL syntax is used to execute the Query By Wiql REST API. Currently, there is no way to call the API to return the detailed work item information from a WIQL query directly. No matter which fields you include in the SELECT statement, the API only returns the work item IDs. To get the full information, you need to perform two steps: (1) get the ID of the work items from a WIQL, and (2) get the work items via Get a list of work items by ID and for specific fields.

Prerequisites

A query returns only those work items for which you have the View work items or View work items in this node permission. Typically, these permissions are granted to members of the Readers and Contributors groups for each team project. For more information, see Permissions and groups.

Query language overview

The work item query language has five parts shown in the following syntax snippet and described in the following table. WIQL syntax isn't case-sensitive.

SELECT
    [System.Id],
    [System.AssignedTo],
    [System.State],
    [System.Title],
    [System.Tags]
FROM workitems
WHERE
    [System.TeamProject] = 'Design Agile'
    AND [System.WorkItemType] = 'User Story'
    AND [System.State] = 'Active'
ORDER BY [System.ChangedDate] DESC
ASOF '02-11-2020'

Tip

By installing the Wiql Editor Marketplace extension, you can construct your queries using the Query Editor and then view the WIQL syntax. You can then copy and modify the WIQL syntax and run the query using the Wiql Playground hub added to Boards.

Clause

Example

SELECT

Identifies the fields to return for each work item returned by the query. You can specify either the friendly name or reference name. Use square brackets ([]) if the name contains blanks or periods.

FROM

Indicates whether you want the query to find work items or links between work items.

  • Use FROM WorkItems to return work items.
  • Use FROM workItemLinks to return links between work items. For more information, see Queries for links between work items later in this article.

WHERE

Specifies the filter criteria for the query. For more information, see Filter conditions (WHERE) later in this article.

ORDER BY

Specifies the sort order of the work items returned. You can specify Ascending (Asc) or Descending (Desc) for one or more fields. For example:
ORDER BY [State] Asc, [Changed Date] Desc

ASOF

Specifies a historical query by indicating a date for when the filter is to be applied. For example, this query returns all user stories that were defined as Active on February 11, 2020. Specify the date according to the guidance provided in Date and time pattern. ASOF '02-11-2020'

Note

The WIQL length of queries made against Azure Boards must not exceed 32K characters. The system won't allow you to create or run queries that exceed that length.

Date and time pattern

The date and time pattern you enter for DateTime fields should match that which you select through your profile. To view or change your selection, see Set user preferences, Time and Locale.

Time and Locale page, Date pattern options

Quote (single or double quotes are supported) DateTime literals used in comparisons. They must be in the .NET DateTime format of the local client computer running the query. Unless a time zone is specified, DateTime literals are in the time zone of the local computer.

WHERE 
   AND [System.ChangedDate] >= '01-18-2019 GMT'
   AND ([Closed Date] < '01-09-2022 GMT'
   OR [Resolved Date] >= '01-18-2019 14:30:01')

When the time is omitted in a DateTime literal and the dayPrecision parameter equals false, the time is assumed to be zero (midnight). The default setting for the dayPrecision parameter is false.

Or, you can specify ISO 8601 format which is valid no matter the locale. ISO 8601 represents date and time by starting with the year, followed by the month, the day, the hour, the minutes, seconds and milliseconds. For example, 2021-12-10 15:00:00.000, represents the 10th of December 2021 at 3 p.m. in local time. An example of using ISO 8601 format is as follows.

WHERE 
   AND [System.ChangedDate] >= '2019-01-18T00:00:00.0000000'
   AND ([Closed Date] < '2022-01-09T00:00:00.0000000'
   OR [Resolved Date] >= '2019-01-18T00:00:00.0000000')

Custom fields

You can add a custom field to a query clause. With WIQL, you must specify the reference name for the custom field.

For more information, see Add or modify a field to track work.

Specify filter clauses (WHERE)

The WHERE clause specifies the filter criteria. The query returns only work items that satisfy the specified criteria. For example, the following example WHERE clause returns user stories that are active and that are assigned to you.

WHERE [Work Item Type] = 'User Story'
   AND [State] = 'Active'
   AND [Assigned to] = @Me

You can control the order in which logical operators are evaluated by enclosing them within parentheses to group the filter criteria. For example, to return work items that are either assigned to you or that you closed, change the query filter to match the following example.

WHERE
    [System.TeamProject] = @project
    AND (
        [System.WorkItemType] = 'Product Backlog Item'
        AND (
            [System.AssignedTo] = @me
            OR [Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ClosedBy] = @me
        )
    )

Filter conditions

Each filter condition is composed of three parts, each of which must conform to the following rules:

  • Field: You can specify either the reference name or friendly name. The following examples are valid WIQL syntax:
    • Reference name: SELECT [System.AssignedTo] ...
    • Friendly name with spaces: SELECT [Assigned To] ...
    • Names without spaces don't require square brackets: SELECT ID, Title ...
  • Operator: Valid values are specified in the Operators section later in this article.
  • Field value: You can specify one of the following three values depending on the field specified.
    • A literal value must match the data type of the field value.
    • A *variable or macro that indicates a certain value. For example, @Me indicates the person who is running the query. For more information, see Macros and variables later in this article.
    • The name of another field. For example, you can use [Assigned to] = [Changed by] to find work items that are assigned to the person who changed the work item most recently.

For a description and reference names of all system-defined fields, see Work item field index.

Operators

Queries use logical expressions to qualify result sets. These logical expressions are formed by one or more conjoined operations.

Some simple query operations are listed below.

WHERE
    [System.TeamProject] = @project
    AND [System.WorkItemType] <> ''
    AND [System.AssignedTo] = 'Jamal Hartnett <fabrikamfiber4@hotmail.com>'
    AND [Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Severity] <> '1 - Critical'

The table below summarizes all the supported operators for different field types. For more information on each field type, see Work item fields and attributes.

The =, <>, >, <, >=, and <= operators work as expected. For instance, System.ID > 100 queries for all work items with an ID greater than 100. System.ChangedDate > '01-01-19 12:00:00' queries for all work items changed after noon of January 1, 2019.

Beyond these basic operators, there are some behaviors and operators specific to certain field types.

Note

The operators available to you depend on your platform and version. For more information, see Query quick reference.

Field type

Supported operators

Boolean

= , <> , =[Field] , <>[Field]

DateTime

= , <> , > , < , >= , <= , =[Field], <>[Field], >[Field], <[Field], >=[Field], <=[Field], In, Not In, Was Ever

Double, GUID, Integer

= , <> , > , < , >= , <= , =[Field], <>[Field], >[Field], <[Field], >=[Field], <=[Field], In, Not In, Was Ever

Identity

= , <> , > , < , >= , <= , =[Field], <>[Field], >[Field], <[Field], >=[Field], <=[Field], Contains, Not Contains, In, Not In, In Group, Not In Group, Was Ever

PlainText

Contains Words, Not Contains Words, Is Empty, Is Not Empty

String

= , <> , > , < , >= , <= , =[Field], <>[Field], >[Field], <[Field], >=[Field], <=[Field], Contains, Not Contains, In, Not In, In Group, Not In Group, Was Ever

TreePath

=, <>, In, Not In, Under, Not Under

Logical groupings

You can use the terms AND and OR in the typical Boolean sense to evaluate two clauses. You can use the terms AND EVER and OR EVER when specifying a WAS EVER operator. You can group logical expressions and further conjoin them, as needed. Examples are shown below.

WHERE
    [System.TeamProject] = @project
    AND (
        [System.WorkItemType] <> ''
        AND [System.State] IN ('Active', 'Approved', 'Committed', 'In Progress')
        AND (
            [System.CreatedBy] = ''
            OR [System.AssignedTo] = 'Jamal Hartnett <fabrikamfiber4@hotmail.com>'
        )
    )

You can negate the contains, under, and in operators by using not. You can't negate the ever operator. The example below queries for all work items that aren't assigned under the subtree of Fabrikam Fiber\Account Management.

WHERE
    [System.TeamProject] = @project
    AND [System.WorkItemType] <> ''
    AND NOT [System.AreaPath] UNDER 'Fabrikam Fiber\Account Management'

Example query, Was Ever Assigned To

The following Query Editor example finds all work items that were ever assigned to Jamal Hartnett.

Screenshot of Query Editor, flat list query, was ever assigned.

And, here is the corresponding WIQL syntax.

SELECT
    [System.Id],
    [System.Title],
    [System.State],
    [System.IterationPath]
FROM workitems
WHERE
    [System.TeamProject] = @project
    AND [System.WorkItemType] <> ''
    AND EVER [System.AssignedTo] = 'Jamal Hartnett <fabrikamfiber4@hotmail.com>'

Macros or variables

The following table lists the macros or variables you can use within a WIQL query.

Macro Usage
@Me Use this variable to automatically search for the current user's alias in a field that contains user aliases. For example, you can find work items that you opened if you set the Field column to Activated By, the Operator column to =, and the Value column to @Me.
@CurrentIteration Use this variable to automatically filter for work items assigned to the current sprint for the selected team based on the selected team context.
@Project Use this variable to search for work items in the current project. For example, you can find all the work items in the current project if you set the Field column to Team Project, the Operator column to =, and the Value column to @Project.
@Today Use this variable to search for work items that relate to the current date or to an earlier date. You can also modify the @Today variable by subtracting days. For example, you can find all items activated in the last week if you set the Field column to Activated Date, the Operator column to >=, and the Value column to @Today - 7.
[Any] Use this variable to search for work items that relate to any value that is defined for a particular field.

@me macro

The @me macro replaces the Windows Integrated account name of the user who runs the query. The example below shows how to use the macro and the equivalent static statement. The macro is intended for use with identity fields such as Assigned To.

WHERE  
   [System.AssignedTo] = @Me

@today macro

You can use the @today macro with any DateTime field. This macro replaces midnight of the current date on the local computer that runs the query. You can also specify @today+x or @today-y using integer offsets for x days after @today and y days before @today, respectively. A query that uses the @today macro can return different result sets depending on the time zone in which it's run.

The examples below assumes that today is 1/3/19.

WHERE  
   [System.CreatedDate] = @today

Is the equivalent of:

WHERE  
   [System.CreatedDate] = '01-03-2019'

And

WHERE  
   [System.CreatedDate] > @today-2

Is the equivalent of:

WHERE  
   [System.CreatedDate] > '01-01-2019'

Custom macros

WIQL also supports arbitrary custom macros. Any string prefixed by an @ is treated as a custom macro and gets substituted. The replacement value for the custom macro is retrieved from the context parameter of the query method in the object model. The following method is the API used for macros:

public WorkItemCollection Query(string wiql, IDictionary context)

The context parameter contains key-value pairs for macros. For example, if the context contains a key-value pair of (project, MyProject), then @project gets replaced by MyProject in the WIQL. This replacement is how the work item query builder handles the @project macro in Visual Studio.

Specify historical queries (ASOF)

You can use an ASOF clause in a query to filter for work items that satisfy the specified filter conditions as they were defined on a specific date and time.

Note

You can’t create ASOF queries in the query builder in Visual Studio. If you create a query file (.wiq) that includes an ASOF clause, and then load that in Visual Studio, the ASOF clause is ignored.

Suppose a work item was classified under an Iteration Path of Fabrikam Fiber\Release 1 and assigned to 'Jamal Hartnett' prior to 5/05/2022. However, the work item was recently assigned to 'Raisa Pokrovskaya' and moved to a new iteration path of Release 2. The following example query returns work items assigned to Jamal Hartnett because the query is based on the state of work items as of a past date and time.

SELECT
    [System.Id],
    [System.Title],
    [System.State],
    [System.IterationPath]
FROM workitems
WHERE
    [System.TeamProject] = @project
    AND [System.WorkItemType] <> ''
    AND ([System.IterationPath] UNDER 'Fabrikam Fiber\Release 1'
    AND [System.AssignedTo] = 'Jamal Hartnett <fabrikamfiber4@hotmail.com>') 
    ASOF  '01-05-2022 00:00:00.0000000'

Note

If no time is specified, WIQL uses midnight. If no time zone is specified, WIQL uses the time zone of the local client computer.

Set the sort order (ORDER BY)

You can use the ORDER BY clause to sort the results of a query by one or more fields in ascending or descending order.

Note

The sorting preferences of the SQL server on the data tier determine the default sort order. However, you can use the asc or desc parameters to choose an explicit sort order.

The following example sorts work items first by Priority in ascending order (default), and then by Created Date in descending order (DESC).

SELECT
    [System.Id],
    [System.Title],
    [System.State],
    [System.IterationPath]
FROM workitems
WHERE
    [System.TeamProject] = @project
    AND [System.WorkItemType] <> ''
    AND [System.State] =  'Active'
    AND [System.AssignedTo] = 'Jamal Hartnett <fabrikamfiber4@hotmail.com>'
ORDER BY [Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Priority],
    [System.CreatedDate] DESC

To return links between work items, you specify FROM WorkItemLinks. Filter conditions in the WHERE clause may apply to the links or to any work item that is the source or the target of a link. For example, the following query returns the links between Product Backlog Items and their active child items.

SELECT
    [System.Id],
    [System.Title],
    [System.State],
    [System.IterationPath]
FROM workitemLinks
WHERE
    (
        [Source].[System.TeamProject] = @project
        AND [Source].[System.WorkItemType] = 'Product Backlog Item'
    )
    AND (
        [System.Links.LinkType] = 'System.LinkTypes.Hierarchy-Forward'
    )
    AND (
        [Target].[System.TeamProject] = @project
        AND [Target].[System.WorkItemType] <> ''
        AND [Target].[System.State] <> 'Closed'
    )
ORDER BY [Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Priority],
    [System.CreatedDate] DESC
MODE (Recursive)

The following table summarizes the differences between work item queries and queries for links between work items.

Clause

Work items

Links between work items

FROM

FROM WorkItems

FROM WorkItemLinks

WHERE

[FieldName] = Value

Specify one or more of the following:
[Source].[FieldName] = Value
[Target].[FieldName] = Value
[System.Links.LinkType] = 'LinkName'

MODE

not applicable

Specify one of the following:

  • MODE (MustContain): (Default) Returns only WorkItemLinkInfo records where the source, target, and link criteria are all satisfied.
  • MODE (MayContain): Returns WorkItemLinkInfo records for all work items that satisfy the source and link criteria, even if no linked work item satisfies the target criteria.
  • MODE (DoesNotContain): Returns WorkItemLinkInfo records for all work items that satisfy the source, only if no linked work item satisfies the link and target criteria.
  • MODE (Recursive): Use for Tree queries([System.Links.LinkType] = 'System.LinkTypes.Hierarchy-Forward'). Link type must be Tree topology and forward direction. Returns WorkItemLinkInfo records for all work items that satisfy the source, recursively for target. ORDER BY and ASOF aren't compatible with tree queries.

RETURNS

WorkItemQueryResult

WorkItemLink

You can specify one of the system link type names, listed below, or a custom link type you've defined with the On-premises XML process.

  • System.LinkTypes.Hierarchy-Forward
  • System.LinkTypes.Related
  • System.LinkTypes.Dependency-Predecessor
  • System.LinkTypes.Dependency-Successor
  • Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Affects-Forward (CMMI process)

For more information, see Link type reference.

Tree type query example

The following query returns all work item types define in the current project. The query as shown in the Query Editor appears as shown in the following image.

Screenshot of Query Editor, tree query, all work items and states.

The equivalent WIQL syntax is shown below.

SELECT
    [System.Id],
    [System.Title],
    [System.State],
    [System.IterationPath]
FROM workitemLinks
WHERE
    (
        [Source].[System.TeamProject] = @project
        AND [Source].[System.WorkItemType] <> ''
        AND [Source].[System.State] <> ''
    )
    AND (
        [System.Links.LinkType] = 'System.LinkTypes.Hierarchy-Forward'
    )
    AND (
        [Target].[System.TeamProject] = @project
        AND [Target].[System.WorkItemType] <> ''
    )
MODE (Recursive)

The following query returns all work item types define in the current project. The query as shown in the Query Editor appears as shown in the following image.

Screenshot of Query Editor, direct-link query, all work items and states.

The equivalent WIQL syntax is as shown.

SELECT
    [System.Id],
    [System.WorkItemType],
    [System.Title],
    [System.AssignedTo],
    [System.State]
FROM workitemLinks
WHERE
    (
        [Source].[System.TeamProject] = @project
        AND [Source].[System.WorkItemType] <> ''
        AND [Source].[System.State] <> ''
    )
    AND (
        [System.Links.LinkType] = 'System.LinkTypes.Dependency-Reverse'
        OR [System.Links.LinkType] = 'System.LinkTypes.Related-Forward'
        OR [System.Links.LinkType] = 'System.LinkTypes.Dependency-Forward'
    )
    AND (
        [Target].[System.TeamProject] = @project
        AND [Target].[System.WorkItemType] <> ''
        AND [Target].[System.ChangedDate] >= @today - 60
    )
ORDER BY [System.Id]
MODE (MustContain)

More query examples

The following typical WIQL query example uses reference names for the fields. The query selects work items (no work item type specified) with a Priority=1. The query returns the ID and Title of the return set as columns. The results are sorted by ID in ascending order.

SELECT
    [System.Id],
    [System.Title],
    [System.State],
    [System.IterationPath]
FROM workitems
WHERE
    [System.TeamProject] = @project
    AND [Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Priority] <> ''
ORDER BY [System.Id]

Date-time pattern

You specify the date-time pattern according to one of two patterns:

  • The Date Pattern and Time Pattern format comes from your user preferences, Time and Locale
  • The pattern specified by UTC, which follows this pattern (with Z appended to the date-time).

AND [System.ChangedDate] >= '1/1/2019 00:00:00Z'

Example clauses

The following example statements show specific qualifying clauses.

Clause

Example

AND

SELECT [System.Id], [System.Title]
FROM WorkItems
WHERE [System.TeamProject] = @project
AND [System.AssignedTo] = 'Jamal Hartnett <fabrikamfiber4@hotmail.com>'

OR

SELECT [System.Id], [System.Title] 
FROM WorkItems 
WHERE [System.TeamProject] = @project 
AND ( [System.AssignedTo] = 'Jamal Hartnett <fabrikamfiber4@hotmail.com>'
OR [System.AssignedTo] = ''Raisa Pokrovskaya <fabrikamfiber5@hotmail.com>' )

NOT

SELECT [System.Id], [System.Title] 
FROM WorkItems 
WHERE [System.TeamProject] = @project 
AND [System.AssignedTo] EVER 'Jamal Hartnett <fabrikamfiber4@hotmail.com>'
AND [System.AssignedTo] NOT CONTAINS 'Raisa Pokrovskaya <fabrikamfiber5@hotmail.com>'

EVER

SELECT [System.Id], [System.Title] 
FROM WorkItems 
WHERE [System.TeamProject] = @project 
AND [System.AssignedTo] EVER 'Jamal Hartnett <fabrikamfiber4@hotmail.com>'

UNDER

SELECT [System.Id], [System.Title] 
FROM WorkItems 
WHERE [System.TeamProject] = @project 
AND [System.AssignedTo] EVER 'Jamal Hartnett <fabrikamfiber4@hotmail.com>'
AND [System.AreaPath] UNDER 'Agile1\Area 0'

ORDER BY

SELECT [System.Id], [System.Title] 
FROM WorkItems 
WHERE [System.TeamProject] = @project 
AND [System.AssignedTo] = 'Jamal Hartnett <fabrikamfiber4@hotmail.com>'
ORDER BY [System.Id] [asc | desc]

ASOF (Time filter)

SELECT [System.Title] 
FROM workitems 
WHERE [System.IterationPath] = 'MyProject\Beta' 
AND [System.AssignedTo] = 'Jamal Hartnett <fabrikamfiber4@hotmail.com>' 
ASOF '3/16/19 12:30'

String and PlainText

Quote string literals (single or double quotes are supported) in a comparison with a string or plain text field. String literals support all Unicode characters.

WHERE [Custom.Blocking] = 'Not Blocking'
WHERE [Custom.Blocking] <> 'Blocked'

You can use the contains operator to search for a substring anywhere in the field value.

WHERE [System.Description] contains 'WIQL'

Area and Iteration (TreePath)

You can use the UNDER operator for the Area and Iteration Path fields. The UNDER operator evaluates whether a value is within the subtree of a specific classification node. For instance, the expression below would evaluate to true if the Area Path were 'MyProject\Server\Administration', 'MyProject\Server\Administration\Feature 1', 'MyProject\Server\Administration\Feature 2\SubFeature 5', or any other node within the subtree.

WHERE [System.AreaPath] UNDER 'MyProject\Server\Administration'

Modifiers and special operators

You can use some modifiers and special operators in a query expression.

Use the IN operator to evaluate whether a field value is equal to any of a set of values. This operator is supported for the String, Integer, Double, and DateTime field types. See the following example along with its semantic equivalent.

WHERE
    [System.TeamProject] = @project
    AND [System.CreatedBy] IN ('Jamal Hartnett <fabrikamfiber4@hotmail.com>', 'Raisa Pokrovskaya <fabrikamfiber5@hotmail.com>', 'Christie Church <fabrikamfiber1@hotmail.com>')

or

WHERE
    [System.TeamProject] = @project
    AND (
        [System.CreatedBy] = 'Jamal Hartnett <fabrikamfiber4@hotmail.com>'
        OR [System.CreatedBy] = 'Raisa Pokrovskaya <fabrikamfiber5@hotmail.com>'
        OR [System.CreatedBy] = 'Christie Church <fabrikamfiber1@hotmail.com>'
    )

The EVER operator is used to evaluate whether a field value equals or has ever equaled a particular value throughout all past revisions of work items. The String, Integer, Double, and DateTime field types support this operator. There are alternate syntaxes for the EVER operator. For example, the snippets below query whether all work items were ever assigned to Jamal, Raise, or Christie.

WHERE
    [System.TeamProject] = @project
    AND (
        EVER [System.AssignedTo] = 'Jamal Hartnett <fabrikamfiber4@hotmail.com>'
        OR EVER [System.AssignedTo] = 'Raisa Pokrovskaya <fabrikamfiber5@hotmail.com>'
        OR EVER [System.AssignedTo] = 'Christie Church <fabrikamfiber1@hotmail.com>'
    )