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  1. Jira Platform Cloud
  2. JRACLOUD-23030

Not equals operator (!=) excludes results with empty values in JQL

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      Expected Behavior

      The NOT / != operator in a JQL query should return issues with no value set for the searched field or with an empty value.

      Actual Behavior

      Issues with non-existing or empty values for the searched field are excluded from the search.

      Example #1

      • I have the below query on a filter, which returns all issues not assigned to the user admin;
        assignee != admin
        
      • This filter returns issues assigned to all users but admin, however it doesn't return unassigned

      Example #2

      • A JIRA instance has 100 issues;
      • 90 issues are under a issue type which should have a field named "Color";
      • 80 of those issues have a value for the "Color" field;
      • 30 of those 80 issues have the color set to "Red";
      • The below query returns 50 issues, whereas it should return 70 issues based on the logical value of !=, which is "not equals to", what should imply "empty" or "null";
        Color != "Red"
        

      Example #3

      • Below query, should returns all issues with fixVersion not equals to 2.
        fixVersion not in (2) 
        
      • but it doesn't return issues with EMPTY values in fixVersion
      • Proper JQL query is, which is not intuitive:
        fixVersion not in (2) or fixVersion is EMPTY
        
      • Taking into account that IN is alias to (= OR , ...)

      Example #4

      • Below query, should return all issues with an empty Epic link.
        ("Epic Link" is empty or "Epic Link" != <> 
        
      • but it doesn't return all the issues with EMPTY values

      Steps to Reproduce

      1. Run a filter similar to the below;
        assignee != admin
        
      1. Un-assign one of the issues returned by the filter;
      2. Re-run the search;

      Notice the unassigned issue will be now be missing.

      Workaround

      Create a filter for issues which have a positive match for the value you are trying to exclude.

      Example

      1. Create a new filter with the below query and give it a name (e.g. Admin's Issues)
        assignee = admin
        
      1. Run a search with the below query;
        filter != "Admin's Issues"
        

      Workaround 2

      Why my JQL search with “not in” or “!=” (not equals) operators has issues missing

              Unassigned Unassigned
              adc6ee404f6d Jeff Kirby
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                Created:
                Updated: