How do you search for todos?

Support
1

Just installed and gave Joplin a try. Looks and works awesome thus far. There’s one big issue for me though: I can’t get it to search my todos. I.e., searching text generally works (so the search is not broken in my installation I guess – using it on macOS).

However, if I type - [ ] or "- [ ]" into the search box, it doesn’t seem to be able to find the results (i…e, notes that contain said todos).

Any tips?

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2

Are you using global search or search with a note?

In any case, I doubt that you can do that. The global search makes use of the FTS engine of sqlite. - denotes not and I believe escaping characters are not taken into account.
I tried several ways to esacape and quote serach tokens, but to no avail.

But @laurent wrote the search logic. He should have an idea how you might be able to search for a string that starts with - [ ].

3

Thanks, that might explain it! Btw. I tried both local and global search. I think search in general may currently only support letters and numbers, not symbols.

E.g., even if I try ( ) it doesn’t work. It briefly flashes as a result (see lower right):

57%20PM

but then vanishes as 1/2 second later.

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4

Any update on this!? Would certainly have use for it when looking for to-dos overdue.

5

Still not possible to search for un-/finished todos inside notes?

I would also need to search & list all my un-/finished todo types of notes.

6

Joplin uses the sqlite search engine, which is the reason why we are not able to search for - [ ].

There’s currently a GSoC project in progress which will improve the search engine. See the following category: #gsoc-projects:gsoc-projects-search
Naveen can tell you, whether that kind of search will be available.

7

and if you try in search field ?
/"- [ ]"
version 1.0.224 (I remember it didn’t work on some previous versions)

2 Likes
8

Yes, this works for todos inside notes! Thanks!

Still looking for a way to list all my todo types of notes.

9

For me it works across all notes if I put it in the top box. But it won’t find done tasks because the query is different (X)

10

Yes, the new search filters will take care of this.

type:todo to return all todos
iscompleted:1 to return all completed todos
iscompleted:0 for uncompleted todos

Check the documentation for more details.

2 Likes
11

Ooops! I didn’t know about this project. I also read the interesting discussion following the link you provided. I’m really exited about these coming changes! When will it be (approximately) available?

12

That’s why I mentioned it 5 posts above this one 3 days ago…

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13

In a month. Hopefully sooner.