How can I effectively list tasks that meet the specified conditions?

[liuling73]

I need to display non-recurring tasks that are due today or within the next week. I have used the following code:

not done
due 2023-12-25 or ((due in 1 week) and (is not recurring))

However, the filtered results do not match the requirements, as shown in the following image:

How can I optimize the code to achieve the desired outcome?"

[claremacrae]

I am not in front of a computer, so cannot experiment with this right now.

So I will tell you how to fix it yourself.

1. Add the explain instruction to your query - and you will see that only the first part of the date query is being used.
2. read the documentation section on 'Combining queries'.

You need to put brackets around every part of combined queries, and spell AND and OR with capitals, so it will be something like:

(due 2023-12-25) OR ((due in 1 week) AND (is not recurring))

[liuling73]

If I revise the code to:

not done
(due 2023-12-25) OR ((due in 1 week) AND (is not recurring))

But the results are still incorrect, and it doesn't accurately filter out tasks that meet the criteria. The outcome is shown in the following image:

One eligible result is missing.

[liuling73]

If I modify the filtering criteria to:

not done
due in 1 week

The filtering results are as shown in the image, and I'm not sure of the reason.

[claremacrae]

It’s either query - in which case use explain.

Or it’s the task. Open the task in the Edit task modal and check that all the values are shown in the fields correctly.

[claremacrae]

And if you still have a problem, then paste the missing task in here as text and I will look at it later.

If I can’t see the data, I can’t help.

[liuling73]

Cyclical tasks are shown in the following image:

Tasks not listed in the filtering criteria are displayed in the image below:

I attempted four different filtering approaches, each as follows:

not done
(due 2023-12-25) OR ((due in 1 week) AND (is not recurring))

not done
due 2023-12-25 OR ((due in 1 week) AND (is not recurring))

not done
due in 1 week

not done
(due 2023-12-25) OR ((due in 1 week) AND (is not recurring))

[claremacrae]

I do not understand what the question is.

[liuling73]

Please take another look at the filtering conditions. It seems there is a logical issue with the results. For example, tasks due in the next week that should be included are not appearing in the list.

[claremacrae]

There is content in your screenshots that is not provided as text for me to copy, so for reasons explained in the following post, I am unable to investigate:

https://publish.obsidian.md/tasks/Support+and+Help/Report+a+Bug

If you can provide your task lines as text,, as per the above, I will willingly have a look when I have time.

Thank you.

[claremacrae]

I am now in front of a computer and can test your queries.

Whenever the Tasks results are not want you want, the best action is always to add an explain line, and it will show how your query is interpreted.

Meaning of 'due in 1 week'

Please take another look at the filtering conditions. It seems there is a logical issue with the results. For example, tasks due in the next week that should be included are not appearing in the list.

I added the explain instruction to the following query:

The query:

```tasks
explain
not done
due in 1 week
```

The search results begin with:

Explanation of this Tasks code block query:

not done

due in 1 week =>
  due date is on 2024-01-02 (Tuesday 2nd January 2024)

The key here is the word on.

There is a table in the documentation that explains this - see Date search options:

The problem is that due in 1 week means due in exactly 1 week - so exactly on that 1 day.

Fixing the search

Here are some example other ways that you can write what you may want - with their explain results shown:

due on or before in 1 week =>
  due date is on or before 2024-01-02 (Tuesday 2nd January 2024)

due on or before in 7 days =>
  due date is on or before 2024-01-02 (Tuesday 2nd January 2024)

due this week =>
  due date is between:
    2023-12-25 (Monday 25th December 2023) and
    2023-12-31 (Sunday 31st December 2023) inclusive

The date searches in Tasks have evolved a lot this year.

Myself and @ilandikov have gone to considerable effort to document the options as clearly as we can.

The above is all explained thoroughly, with examples:

https://publish.obsidian.md/tasks/Queries/Filters#Searching+date+ranges

[claremacrae]

I'm glad, but please do check as there are errors in that line.

due befoe has a typo, so does not do before

The template currently expands to this:

(due 2023-12-26) OR ((due befoe 2023-12-26 due before 2024-01-01) AND (is not recurring))

And this bit is definitely wrong as it has two instructions in one lot of brackets:

[claremacrae]

It is interpreted like this:

I think by luck it is being read as:

(due 2023-12-26 2024-01-01)

[liuling73]

explain
not done
(due 2023-12-25) OR ((due 2023-12-25 due 2024-1-1) AND (is not recurring))

I also identified this error and have revised the code as shown above. Thanks again!

[claremacrae]

(due 2023-12-25 due 2024-1-1)

Sorry, but again, the above is not correct, and may only work by luck...

It should be:

 (due 2023-12-25 2024-01-01)

[liuling73]

Thanks！