Bug : Query an Array attribute with an array of values does not work

[superseby2]

👟 Reproduction steps

I am trying to query a Collection where one attribute is an Array of string

Trying this syntax fails to retrieve anything (and it feels normal)

database.list_documents('collection',                                                                       
       [                                                                                                               
           Query.equal("array_attribute, ["value1","value2"])                             
       ]                                                                                                               
))

Trying this syntax fails also while it feels like it could work ;)

database.list_documents('collection',                                                                       
       [                                                                                                               
           Query.equal("array_attribute, '["value1","value2"]')                             
       ]                                                                                                               
))

What I am trying to do is basically an "Array IN Array" comparison. Going the "equal" way seems hackish but I thought as the attribute is stored in a String it might work (and could be a work-around until a proprer "in" or "contains" operator exists. ?)

My only other option to make this work is use a function to "explode" the values contained in array_attribute in a new collection and then I can do a OR comparaison. It works but is not as straighforward + it generates a big collection.

👍 Expected behavior

some content is being retrieved

👎 Actual Behavior

Nothing is retrieved.

🎲 Appwrite version

Version 0.12.x

💻 Operating system

Linux

🧱 Your Environment

No response

👀 Have you spent some time to check if this issue has been raised before?

• I checked and didn't find similar issue

🏢 Have you read the Code of Conduct?

• I have read the Code of Conduct

[superseby2]

Just tried using a fulltext index and it seems to work. Would it be the route to follow ?

[superseby2]

Fulltext option works great until I want to use multiple attributes in the fulltext index. Creating the inndex works in the console (no error) but when querying using this index an error is raised

    raise AppwriteException(response.text, response.status_code)
appwrite.exception.AppwriteException: {"message":"Error: Can't find FULLTEXT index matching the column list"

[superseby2]

Creating one single fulltext index for each attribute works though and I can query using a Search Query for each attributes defined in the index.
So to be able to use an fulltext index composed with multiple attributes I had to 1) create a fulltext index for each attributé 2) create an Index with all the attributes in it

[anandsubbu007]

how to implement search for matching document with array attribute which match and of the data in the list

[TorstenDittmann]

This is not really supported as of right now, every possible solution will come with its downsides 👍🏻

We are working on a way to query the contents of an array.

[meepeek]

Is there any update on this issue ? I'm planing to have a tag search in an app so I search and found this thread.

[stnguyen90]

@meepeek, @superseby2, for this type of functionality, are you expecting for documents to return if they have any least one of the values in the query? For example, let's say the document has ["flutter", "dart"] for attribute tags. Query.contains("tags", ["flutter", "react"]) would return the document because flutter is in the tags. Is this the functionality you need?

[meepeek]

@stnguyen90 I think making the single param called exact match make more sense as we can overloaded the function for partial matching. I propose sample use cases and syntax representation as follow.

1. Partial matching (contains 'a' or 'b') - use case, tag filter where user may uncheck unwanted tags

[ Query.contains('tags', ['a'], ['b']) ]

2. All matching (have both 'a' and 'b') - site admin query for counts or batch operation

[ Query.contains('tags', ['a', 'b']) ]

3. All matching strictly (have both 'a' and 'b' and no others) - also site admin query

[ Query.arrayLength('tags', 2), Query.contains('tags', ['a', 'b']) ]

4. Invert operation - if there are fewer unwanted tags, it would be more efficient to do the invert

[ Query.notContains('tags', ['a', 'b']) ]

Also, tag use case will need distinct query so we will know all available tag list before the query. I didn't see query distinct in the doc but it can be temporary fixed by having a unique list updated as each record created or updated. However, I think distinct query should be available for every attribute types.

[netapy]

Are there any news on this issue ? This would be very useful

[naitbrahim]

Hi, is there any news on this topic please ? Thanks

[Ota-Prokopec]

I dont know if it is helpful, but i found out that you can use Query.search to looking for items in array.

[feschaffa]

Any plans on implementing this? Using the search method for now, but feels a bit hacky. Thanks!

[0xDjole]

This is a useless product.

[oussamachah2020]

i have an attribute of type array and i want to update it by pushing value into, how can i do that in JS ??

[johnschatner]

Would also love this feature! Search is a hit or miss with foreign characters.

[OmidHajizadeh]

@meepeek, @superseby2, for this type of functionality, are you expecting for documents to return if they have any least one of the values in the query? For example, let's say the document has ["flutter", "dart"] for attribute tags. Query.contains("tags", ["flutter", "react"]) would return the document because flutter is in the tags. Is this the functionality you need?

That's exactly what I'm looking for

[Edijae]

Query.contains not available in node-appwrite 11.1.0 @stnguyen90

[stnguyen90]

Related:

• Feat array contains utopia-php/database#335
• Contains query v2 utopia-php/database#377

[SimonMaluleka]

@oussamachah2020 here's an example to push into or add values to an array type attribute

export const likePost = async(userId, postId)=>{
    try {
        const currentLikes = await databases.listDocuments(
            databaseId,
            videosCollectionId,
            [Query.equal('$id', postId)]
        )

        if(!currentLikes.documents[0].likedBy.includes(userId)){
            const updatedLikes = [...currentLikes.documents[0].likedBy]
            updatedLikes.push(userId)
            const documentId = currentLikes.documents[0].$id
            const updateData = {            
                "likedBy": updatedLikes
            };
            const response = await databases.updateDocument(
                databaseId,
                videosCollectionId,
                documentId,
                updateData
            )
        }      

    } catch (error) {
        throw new Error(error)
    }
}

[SimonMaluleka]

@superseby2 I had a similar requirement and opted to retrieve the documents first and then filtered the results in my application code.

[SimonMaluleka]

For some reason this code also worked for querying the array attribute and suddenly stopped working

export const getlikedPosts = async(userId)=>{
    try {
        const posts = await databases.listDocuments(
            databaseId,
            videosCollectionId,
            [Query.search('likedBy', `${userId}"`)]
        )
    
        return posts.documents
    } catch (error) {
        throw new Error(error)
    }
}