Understanding the search syntax
When searching GitHub Enterprise, you can construct queries that match specific numbers and words.
Query for values greater or less than another value
You can use >, >=, <, and <= to search for values that are greater than, greater than or equal to, less than, and less than or equal to another value.
| Query | Example |
|---|---|
>
n
|
cats stars:>1000 matches repositories with the word "cats" that have more than 1000 stars. |
>=
n
|
cats topics:>=5 matches repositories with the word "cats" that have 5 or more topics. |
<
n
|
cats size:<10000 matches code with the word "cats" in files that are smaller than 10 KB. |
<=
n
|
cats stars:<=50 matches repositories with the word "cats" that have 50 or fewer stars. |
You can also use range queries to search for values that are greater than or equal to, or less than or equal to, another value.
| Query | Example |
|---|---|
n
..*
|
cats stars:10..*
is equivalent to stars:>=10 and matches repositories with the word "cats" that have 10 or more stars. |
*..
n
|
cats stars:*..10
is equivalent to stars:<=10 and matches repositories with the word "cats" that have 10 or fewer stars. |
Query for values between a range
You can use the range syntax n..n to search for values within a range, where the first number n is the lowest value and the second is the highest value.
| Query | Example |
|---|---|
n
..
n
|
cats stars:10..50 matches repositories with the word "cats" that have between 10 and 50 stars. |
Query for dates
You can search for dates that are earlier or later than another date, or that fall within a range of dates, by using >, >=, <, <=, and range queries. Date formatting must follow the ISO8601 standard, which is YYYY-MM-DD (year-month-day).
| Query | Example |
|---|---|
>
YYYY
-
MM
-
DD
|
cats created:>2016-04-29 matches issues with the word "cats" that were created after April 29, 2016. |
>=
YYYY
-
MM
-
DD
|
cats created:>=2017-04-01 matches issues with the word "cats" that were created on or after April 1, 2017. |
<
YYYY
-
MM
-
DD
|
cats pushed:<2012-07-05 matches code with the word "cats" in repositories that were pushed to before July 5, 2012. |
<=
YYYY
-
MM
-
DD
|
cats created:<=2012-07-04 matches issues with the word "cats" that were created on or before July 4, 2012. |
YYYY
-
MM
-
DD
..
YYYY
-
MM
-
DD
|
cats pushed:2016-04-30..2016-07-04 matches repositories with the word "cats" that were pushed to between the end of April and July of 2016. |
YYYY
-
MM
-
DD
..*
|
cats created:2012-04-30..* matches issues created after April 30th, 2012 containing the word "cats." |
*..
YYYY
-
MM
-
DD
|
cats created:*..2012-04-30 matches issues created before July 4th, 2012 containing the word "cats." |
You can also add optional time information THH:MM:SS+00:00 after the date, to search by the hour, minute, and second. That's T, followed by HH:MM:SS (hour-minutes-seconds), and a UTC offset (+00:00).
| Query | Example |
|---|---|
YYYY
-
MM
-
DD
T
HH
:
MM
:
SS
+
00
:
00
|
cats created:2017-01-01T01:00:00+07:00..2017-03-01T15:30:15+07:00
matches issues created between January 1, 2017 at 1 a.m. with a UTC offset of 07:00 and March 1, 2017 at 3 p.m. with a UTC offset of 07:00. |
YYYY
-
MM
-
DD
T
HH
:
MM
:
SS
Z
|
cats created:2016-03-21T14:11:00Z..2016-04-07T20:45:00Z matches issues created between March 21, 2016 at 2:11pm and April 7, 2106 at 8:45pm. |
Exclude certain results
You can exclude results containing a certain word, using the NOT syntax. The NOT operator can only be used for string keywords. It does not work for numerals or dates.
| Query | Example |
|---|---|
NOT |
hello NOT world matches repositories that have the word "hello" but not the word "world." |
Another way you can narrow down search results is to exclude certain subsets. You can prefix any search qualifier with a - to exclude all results that are matched by that qualifier.
| Query | Example |
|---|---|
-
QUALIFIER
|
cats stars:>10 -language:javascript matches repositories with the word "cats" that have more than 10 stars but are not written in JavaScript. |
| mentions:defunkt -org:github matches issues mentioning @defunkt that are not in repositories in the GitHub organization |
Use quotation marks for queries with whitespace
If your search query contains whitespace, you will need to surround it with quotation marks. For example:
- cats NOT "hello world" matches repositories with the word "cats" but not the words "hello world."
- build label:"bug fix" matches issues with the word "build" that have the label "bug fix."