Daniel's Notes

syntaxes in Dataview

3 min read

Dataview has many syntaxes which are quite easy to forget:

  1. DQL - Dataview Query Language
  2. Inline Syntax
  3. DataviewJS
  4. Inline Dataview JS

Tips

DQL - Dataview Query Language

See recipes and docs

A DQL Query consists of several parts:

  • Exactly one Query Type that determines what your Query Output looks like
  • None or one FROM statement to pick a specific tag or folder (or another source) to look at
  • None to multiple other Data Commands that help you filter, group and sort your wanted output

For example, a Query can look like this:

```dataview LIST ```

which list all files in your vault.

Everything but the Query Type is optional

The only thing you need for a valid DQL Query is the Query Type (and on CALENDARs, a date field.)

A more restricted Query might look like this:

```dataview LIST FROM #poems WHERE author = "Edgar Allan Poe" ```

which lists all files in your vault that have the tag #poems and a field named author with the value Edgar Allan Poe. This query would find our example page from above

Inline Syntax

See docs.

Dataview has another syntax which allows you to insert file properties directly into the text of the same note.

`= this.file.name`

So you can write something like this:

The name of this file is `= this.file.name`.

Which will then render like this:

Abilities

The name of this file is = this.file.name.

You can either access the properties of the current page via prefix this. or a different page via [[linkToPage]].

`= this.file.name` `= this.file.mtime` `= this.someMetadataField` `= [[secondPage]].file.name` `= [[secondPage]].file.mtime` `= [[secondPage]].someMetadataField`

You can use everything available as expressions and literals in an Inline DQL Query, including functions.

Limitations

Inline DQL can only display exactly one value. Query Types and Data Commands, on the other hand, are not available in Inlines.

DataviewJS

See docs.

Similar to the query language, you create Dataview JS blocks via a dataviewjs-annotated codeblock.

let pages = dv.pages("#books and -#books/finished").where(b => b.rating >= 7);
for (let group of pages.groupBy(b => b.genre)) {
   dv.header(3, group.key);
   dv.list(group.rows.file.name);
}

Inside of a JS dataview block, you have access to the full dataview API via the dv variable. For an explanation of what you can do with it, see the API documentation, or the API examples.

Inline Dataview JS

See docs.

Similar to the query language, you can write JS inline queries, which let you embed a computed JS value directly. You create JS inline queries via inline code blocks:

`$= dv.current().file.mtime`

Change of Inline JS prefix

You can change the $= to another token (like dvjs: or $~) in Dataviews’ settings under “Codeblock Settings” > “Javascript Inline Query Prefix”

Limitations

Unlike Inline Syntax, Inline JS queries do have access to everything a Dataview JS Query has available and can hence query and output multiple pages.

Graph View

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