Advanced Searching using CQL

CQL function reference

The instructions on this page describe how to use functions in CQL to define structured search queries to search for content in Confluence.

Functions Reference

A function in CQL appears as a word followed by parentheses, which may contain one or more explicit values. In a clause, a function is preceded by an operator that in turn is preceded by a field. A function performs a calculation on either specific Confluence data or the function content in parentheses, such that only true results are retrieved by the function and then again by the clause in which the function is used.

List of Functions

This list provides explanations and examples for the following functions:

  • currentUser()
  • endOfDay()
  • endOfMonth()
  • endOfWeek()
  • endOfYear()
  • startOfDay()
  • startOfMonth()
  • startOfWeek()
  • startOfYear()
  • favouriteSpaces()
  • recentlyViewedContent()
  • recentlyViewedSpaces()

Current user

Perform searches based on the currently logged-in user.

Note that this function can only be used by logged-in users. Anonymous users cannot use this function.

Syntax
1
2
currentUser()
Supported Fields
Supported Operators

=

!=

~

!~

>

>=

<

<=

IN

NOT IN

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

No

Yes

Yes

Examples

  • Find content that was created by me.

    1
2
    creator = currentUser()

  • Find content that mentions me but wasn't created by me.

    1
2
    mention = currentUser() and creator != currentUser()

End of day

Perform searches based on the end of the current day.

Syntax
1
2
endOfDay()

or

1
2
endOfDay("inc")

where inc is an optional increment of (+/-)nn(y|M|w|d|h|m)

  • If the plus/minus (+/-) sign is omitted, plus is assumed.
  • nn: number; y: year, M: month; w: week; d: day; h: hour; m: minute.
Supported Fields
Supported Operators

=

!=

~

!~

>

>=

<

<=

IN

NOT IN

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Examples

  • Find content created since the end of yesterday.

    1
2
    created > endOfDay("-1d")

End of month

Perform searches based on the end of the current month.

Syntax
1
2
endOfMonth()

or

1
2
endOfMonth("inc")

where inc is an optional increment of (+/-)nn(y|M|w|d|h|m)

  • If the plus/minus (+/-) sign is omitted, plus is assumed.
  • nn: number; y: year, M: month; w: week; d: day; h: hour; m: minute.
Supported Fields
Supported Operators

=

!=

~

!~

>

>=

<

<=

IN

NOT IN

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Examples

  • Find content modified before the end of the month.

    1
2
    lastmodified < endOfMonth()

End of week

Perform searches based on the end of the current week.

Syntax
1
2
endOfWeek()

or

1
2
endOfWeek("inc")

where inc is an optional increment of (+/-)nn(y|M|w|d|h|m)

  • If the plus/minus (+/-) sign is omitted, plus is assumed.
  • nn: number; y: year, M: month; w: week; d: day; h: hour; m: minute.
Supported Fields
Supported Operators

=

!=

~

!~

>

>=

<

<=

IN

NOT IN

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Examples

  • Find content created after the end of last week.

    1
2
    created > endOfWeek("-1w")

End of year

Perform searches based on the end of the current year.

Syntax
1
2
endOfYear()

or

1
2
endOfYear("inc")

where inc is an optional increment of (+/-)nn(y|M|w|d|h|m)

  • If the plus/minus (+/-) sign is omitted, plus is assumed.
  • nn: number; y: year, M: month; w: week; d: day; h: hour; m: minute.
Supported Fields
Supported Operators

=

!=

~

!~

>

>=

<

<=

IN

NOT IN

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Examples

  • Find content created by the end of this year.

    1
2
    created < endOfYear()

Start of day

Perform searches based on the start of the current day.

Syntax
1
2
startOfDay()

or

1
2
startOfDay("inc")

where inc is an optional increment of (+/-)nn(y|M|w|d|h|m)

  • If the plus/minus (+/-) sign is omitted, plus is assumed.
  • nn: number; y: year, M: month; w: week; d: day; h: hour; m: minute.
Supported Fields
Supported Operators

=

!=

~

!~

>

>=

<

<=

IN

NOT IN

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Examples

  • Find content created since the start of today.

    1
2
    created > startOfDay()

  • Find content created in the last 7 days.

    1
2
    created > startOfDay("-7d")

Start of month

Perform searches based on the start of the current month.

Syntax
1
2
startOfMonth()

or

1
2
startOfMonth("inc")

where inc is an optional increment of (+/-)nn(y|M|w|d|h|m)

  • If the plus/minus (+/-) sign is omitted, plus is assumed.
  • nn: number; y: year, M: month; w: week; d: day; h: hour; m: minute.
Supported Fields
Supported Operators

=

!=

~

!~

>

>=

<

<=

IN

NOT IN

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Examples

  • Find content created since the start of the month.

    1
2
    created >= startOfMonth()

Start of week

Perform searches based on the start of the current week.

Syntax
1
2
startOfWeek()

or

1
2
startOfWeek("inc")

where inc is an optional increment of (+/-)nn(y|M|w|d|h|m)

  • If the plus/minus (+/-) sign is omitted, plus is assumed.
  • nn: number; y: year, M: month; w: week; d: day; h: hour; m: minute.
Supported Fields
Supported Operators

=

!=

~

!~

>

>=

<

<=

IN

NOT IN

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Examples

  • Find content created since the start of the week.

    1
2
    created >= startOfWeek()

Start of year

Perform searches based on the start of the current year.

1
2
startOfYear()

or

1
2
startOfYear("inc")

where inc is an optional increment of (+/-)nn(y|M|w|d|h|m)

  • If the plus/minus (+/-) sign is omitted, plus is assumed.
  • nn: number; y: year, M: month; w: week; d: day; h: hour; m: minute.
Supported Fields
Supported Operators

=

!=

~

!~

>

>=

<

<=

IN

NOT IN

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Examples

  • Find content created this year.

    1
2
    created >= startOfYear()

Now

Perform searches based on current time.

Syntax
1
2
now()

or

1
2
now("inc")

where inc is an optional increment of (+/-)nn(y|M|w|d|h|m)

  • If the plus/minus (+/-) sign is omitted, plus is assumed.
  • nn: number; y: year, M: month; w: week; d: day; h: hour; m: minute.
Supported Fields
Supported Operators

=

!=

~

!~

>

>=

<

<=

IN

NOT IN

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Examples

  • Find content created before current time.

    1
2
    created <= now()
Available from version

5.7

Favorite spaces

Returns a list of space keys, corresponding to the favorite spaces of the logged in user. 

Syntax
1
2
favouriteSpaces()
Supported Fields
Supported Operators

=

!=

~

!~

>

>=

<

<=

IN

NOT IN

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

Yes

Yes

Examples
  • Find content which exists in the favorite spaces of the logged in user.
1
2
space IN favouriteSpaces()
  • Find content which exists in the favourite spaces of the logged in user as well as other listed spaces
1
2
space IN (favouriteSpaces(), 'FS', 'TS')
Available from version

5.9

Current space

Returns a current space. Requires cqlcontext with spaceKey.

Syntax
1
2
currentSpace()
Supported Fields
Supported Operators

=

!=

~

!~

>

>=

<

<=

IN

NOT IN

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

No

Examples
  • Find content that exists in the current spaces.
1
2
space = currentSpace()
  • Curl example.
1
2
curl -u user:pwd 'http://localhost:8080/confluence/rest/api/search?cql=space%20=%20currentSpace()&cqlcontext=%7B"spaceKey":"TEST"%7D'
Available from version

5.7

Recently viewed content

Returns a list of IDs of recently viewed content for the logged in user.

Syntax
1
2
recentlyViewedContent(limit, offset)
Supported Fields
  • ancestor
  • content
  • id
  • parent
Supported Operators

=

!=

~

!~

>

>=

<

<=

IN

NOT IN

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

Yes

Yes

Examples

  • Find contents with limit to recent 10 history.
1
2
id in recentlyViewedContent(10)
  • Find contents with limit to recent 10 history, but skip first 20.
1
2
id in recentlyViewedContent(10, 20)
Available from version

5.9

Recently viewed spaces

Returns a list of key of spaces recently viewed by the logged in user.

Syntax
1
2
recentlyViewedSpaces(limit)
Supported Fields
  • space
Supported Operators

=

!=

~

!~

>

>=

<

<=

IN

NOT IN

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

Yes

Yes

Examples

  • Find spaces with limit to recent 10 history.
1
2
 space in recentlyViewedSpaces(10)
Available from version

5.9

Reserved Characters

CQL has a list of reserved characters:

  • space (" ")
  • "+"
  • "."
  • ","
  • ";"
  • "?"
  • "|"
  • "*"
  • "/"
  • "%"
  • "^"
  • "$"
  • "#"
  • "@"
  • "["
  • "]"
  • "-"

If you wish to use these characters in queries, you need to:

Reserved Words

CQL has a list of reserved words. These words need to be surrounded by quote-marks if you wish to use them in queries:

"after", "and", "as", "avg", "before", "begin", "by","commit", "contains", "count", "distinct", "else", "empty", "end", "explain", "from", "having", "if", "in", "inner", "insert", "into", "is", "isnull", "left", "like", "limit", "max", "min", "not", "null", "or", "order", "outer", "right", "select", "sum", "then", "was", "where", "update"

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