Exclusions in searches

[davidw]

Hi all -

I’m new here. I’ve been loving TaskPaper and finding these forums invaluable in getting started and customizing it to suit me.

One thing I’m stuck on is excluding projects and tags from search results. I’ve read a few form topics on this, including:

Boolean Suggestion

I was trying to use Boolean logic to search on two different tags at the same time. It didn’t work. I tried “@task AND @today”, either of which will bring up several entries. They do not seem to work together. Suggestion: Would be nice if you could use Boolean search parameters in TaskPaper. Thanks David

How to exclude Archive project when searching?

I like to search all not done tasks (not @done) except those in the Archive project. Could you tell me a search example?

Search by excluding tags

I’m trying to filter my taskpaper file by focusing on a single project in the sidebar and excluding two tags. I can’t figure out why this is not working: not @drop or not @passed not (@drop or @passed) I even tried: (project name of project//*) except //@drop The last one doesn’t even work if I only exclude one single tag.

However, maybe I’m being a bit thick, but I’m not getting the result I want.

I’m trying to create a Next 7 Days search that includes @today, @due, and @start, and excludes @done, @waiting, and the Archive: project.

This is my current version. It still shows tasks in the Archive project.
@today union @due <[d] Tomorrow + 7d union @start <[d] tomorrow + 7d except /Archive//*

For example, a task that still shows in Archive after this search is:
@waiting on @bob and @brian to respond to @chuck re question @due(2018-07-17) @done(2018-07-16) @project(MyProject / Clear up that issue)

I also tried adding “except @waiting//*”, to the search (based on what I see in the default not done search, but it doesn’t seem to do anything. So, I had the following - maybe you can’t chain except clauses like that?
@today union @due <[d] Tomorrow + 7d union @start <[d] tomorrow + 7d except /Archive//* except @waiting//*

Thanks to anyone who can shed some light on this for me!

Cheers,

David

[jessegrosjean]

@davidw

This is my current version. It still shows tasks in the Archive project.
@today union @due <[d] Tomorrow + 7d union @start <[d] tomorrow + 7d except /Archive//*

Try this. I just added parentheses to make sure that except /Archive//* is evaluated last:

(@today union @due <[d] Tomorrow + 7d union @start <[d] tomorrow + 7d) except /Archive//*

[davidw]

Yup. For some reason I think I tried and failed using parentheses.

Here’s what I have now that seems to be working:
((@today union @due <[d] Tomorrow + 24h union @start <[d] tomorrow + 24h) except //@waiting) except /Archive//*

Thanks for the help!

[jTaylor]

@jessegrosjean

(@today union @due <[d] Tomorrow + 7d union @start <[d] tomorrow + 7d) except /Archive//*

Thanks! This is helpful, but I am simply trying to find anything not @due and not @done. I tried not @due and not @done as well as not @due union not @done as well as several other incantations. What am I missing?

[jessegrosjean]

The problem with “not” searches is they won’t work as expected if they match child items of the “not” item. For example:

- a @done
	- b

If you search for “not @done” in this case then nothing will get filtered because “- b” passes the “not @done” test… and “- a @done” is included in search results since it’s the parent of “- b”.

To filter out “@done” items AND all items they contain you can use “except”. For example

//* except @done///*

That means:

1. Find everything: //*
2. Minus: except
3. Done items and all descendants: @done///*

And last to extend that to also exclude @due items you can use:

//* except @due or @done///*