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Query Syntax Help Table of Contents

Query Syntax Help

Conventions in this Document
Simple Search
Conventions in this Document Advanced Search
Text Expressions
Numeric Expressions
Queries are written in italics. Metadata Expressions
Example: %rating% GREATER 3 Time Expressions
Composed Queries
Sorting Results
Query examples may contain placeholders which are enclosed in
Notes
angle brackets. Their name indicates what they need to be replaced Operator Summary
within a real query. If multiple placeholders of the same type occur in
the same query example, a number will be appended to the name.
Example: <field> GREATER <number>

The following common types of placeholders are used in the rest of this document:

<field>
A reference to a tag field. This can be either a plain field name or a title formatting expression. See
Notes for details.
<number>
An integer value.
<string>
A text value that may be enclosed in double quotation marks. See Notes for details.
<time>
A time value or a title formatting expression that evaluates to a time value. See Time Expressions for
details.
<expression>
A query expression in a composed query. This has to follow the rules described under Advanced
Search below.

Simple Search
The simple search mode does not use any keywords.

<any string>
Returns only items that have all words from specified string in their metadata or file path.
When using the simple search, any latin characters are matched regardless of their accents, e.g. “foo”
will match “foo” as well as “föö” or “fóo”.

Advanced Search
The advanced search allows the construction of more complex queries. It offers several keywords to
perform specific types of comparisons and to combine multiple query expressions.

Text Expressions

<field> HAS <string>

Returns only items that have all words from <string> in a metadata field named <field>.
Example: title HAS blah
<field> IS <string>
Returns only items where (at least one) metadata field <field> is equal to <string>.
Example: artist IS blah
* HAS <string>
Same as simple search, but can be combined using logical operators (see below).

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Numeric Expressions
Perform integral number comparison between the value of a <field> and a <number>, e.g.
”%rating% GREATER 3”.

<field> GREATER <number>

<field> LESS <number>
<field> EQUAL <number>

Metadata Expressions
<field> MISSING
Returns only items that don't have a metadata field named <field>.
Example: genre MISSING
<field> PRESENT
Returns only items that have a metadata field named <field>.
Example: genre PRESENT

Time Expressions

<time1> BEFORE <time2>

Returns only items where <time1> value is before <time2>.
Example: %last_modified% BEFORE 2008
<time1> AFTER <time2>
Returns only items where <time1> value is after <time2>.
Example: %last_modified% AFTER 2008
<time1> SINCE <time2>
Returns only items where <time1> value is not before <time2>.
Example: %last_modified% SINCE 2007
<time1> DURING <time2>
Returns only items where <time1> value is a subset of <time2> period.
Example: %last_modified% DURING 2007
<time> DURING LAST <number> <time-unit>
Returns items where <time> value is contained in the specified period.
<time-unit> can be one of SECONDS, MINUTES, HOURS, DAYS, or WEEKS.
Example: %last_modified% DURING LAST 2 WEEKS
If <number> is 1, the expression can be simplified to <time> DURING LAST SECOND/MINUTE
/HOUR/DAY/WEEK
Time values used in these expressions must be in one of the following formats: YYYY, YYYY-MM,
YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY-MM-DD hh, YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm, YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss.

Composed Queries

<expression1> AND <expression2>

Returns only items where both expressions are true.
Example: artist IS blah AND title HAS blah
<expression1> OR <expression2>
Returns only items where at least one expression is true.
NOT <expression>
Returns only items where the expression is false.
Example: NOT %last_played% AFTER %first_played%

Sorting Results

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You can put a SORT BY operator at the end of your search expression to produce search results sorted
by the specified title formatting pattern.

SORT BY <sort-pattern>, SORT ASCENDING BY <sort-pattern>

Sort results in ascending order.
SORT DESCENDING BY <sort-pattern>
Sort results in descending order.

Notes
<field> and <string> in HAS and IS expressions should be enclosed in double quotation marks (”) if
they include spaces or parentheses.
If <field> in HAS, IS, GREATER, LESS, EQUAL includes at least one of #$% characters, it will be
treated as a title formatting string.
Example: %codec% IS MP3
If <field> in HAS, IS, GREATER, LESS, EQUAL does not include any of #$% characters, it will be
treated as a metadata field.
Example: artist IS Radiohead
Note that you can't access technical information (such as codec specifications) or component-
provided information (playback statistics and such) this way.
Using title formatting strings instead of simple field names will decrease search speed on large
libraries and break multiple field value handling in the IS operator - for example, a track with two
artist names: “name1” and “name2”, will be found by artist IS name1 query, but not by %artist% IS
name1.
To control the evaluation order of composed queries, enclose the individual expressions in
parentheses.
Example: ( (artist IS blah) AND (title HAS blah) ) OR (%rating% GREATER 3)
All search expressions are not case-sensitive. All keywords must be uppercase.

Operator Summary

Operator Syntax Comment

AFTER <time1> AFTER <time2>
AND <expression1> AND <expression2>
BEFORE <time1> BEFORE <time2>
DURING <time1> DURING <time2>
<time> DURING LAST <number> SECONDS/MINUTES
DURING
/HOURS/DAYS/WEEKS
LAST
<time> DURING LAST SECOND/MINUTE/HOUR/DAY/WEEK
EQUAL <field> EQUAL <number>
GREATER <field> GREATER <number>
<field> HAS <string>
HAS
* HAS <string>
IS <field> IS <string>
LESS <field> LESS <number>
MISSING <field> MISSING
NOT NOT <expression>
OR <expression1> OR <expression2>
PRESENT <field> PRESENT
SINCE <time1> SINCE <time2>

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SORT BY <sort-pattern> Must be at the end of the

SORT BY
SORT DESCENDING BY <sort-pattern> query.

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