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Broadstripes search uses a simple but powerful query language that lets you find exactly the records you need. This guide will teach you the fundamentals of how to construct search queries.

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Understanding search clause structure

Every search query is built from one or more search clauses. A search clause has three parts:
  1. Keyword - The field you want to search (e.g., city, department, status)
  2. Operator - How you want to compare the value (e.g., =, !=, >, <)
  3. Value - What you’re searching for (e.g., Boston, Active, 100)
Here’s a simple example: 
city = Boston
In this search:
  • city is the keyword (the field we’re searching)
  • = is the operator (we want exact matches)
  • Boston is the value (what we’re looking for)
This search will find all records where the city field equals “Boston”.

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Working with spaces and quotation marks

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The basic rule

Keywords and values can only contain spaces if they’re surrounded by quotation marks.

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When you need quotes

If your value contains spaces, wrap it in quotes: 
worksite = "Factory A"

employer = "Acme Manufacturing Corp"

CustomField = "Full Time Employee"
Without quotes, the search won’t work correctly because the system won’t know where your value ends.

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When you don’t need quotes

Single-word values don’t need quotes: 
department = Warehouse

city = Boston

status = Active

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Quote usage for keywords

The same rule applies to keywords. Most field names are single words and don’t need quotes, but if you have a custom field with spaces in its name, you’ll need to use quotes: 
"Employment Status" = Active

"Job Category" = "Skilled Trades"

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Operator spacing

Operators work with or without spaces around them, but adding spaces makes your searches easier to read. These two searches work identically: 
city=Boston

city = Boston
Best practice: Use spaces around your operators for clarity. Here are some common operators:
OperatorMeaning
=equals (exact match)
!=not equals
>greater than
<less than
>=greater than or equal to
<=less than or equal to
:contains (partial match)
Examples with spacing: Find people 19 years old and older (based on their Birth Date and the current date): 
age > 18
Find people hired on or after January 1, 2024: 
HireDate >= 2024-01-01

lastname : Smith

status != Inactive

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Boolean searches with AND and OR

You can combine multiple search clauses using Boolean operators to create more powerful searches.

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AND is implied

When you write multiple clauses without an operator between them, Broadstripes treats them as AND: 
city = Boston department = Sales
This finds records where the city is Boston AND the department is Sales.

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Using OR

Use OR (in uppercase) to find records matching any of your criteria: 
city = Boston OR city = Cambridge
This finds records where the city is Boston OR Cambridge.

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Grouping with parentheses

Use parentheses to group clauses and control the order of evaluation. This is especially important when mixing AND and OR: 
department = Sales (city = Boston OR city = Cambridge)
This finds people in the Sales department who are located in either Boston or Cambridge. Without parentheses, the search might not work as expected. Compare these two searches: 
department = Sales city = Boston OR city = Cambridge
This could be interpreted incorrectly. Always use parentheses to make your intent clear: 
department = Sales (city = Boston OR city = Cambridge)

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More Boolean examples

Find leaders at multiple locations: 
role = any (employer : "Big Shop" OR employer : "Small Shop")
Find people who need outreach (haven’t been contacted recently OR have a filed grievance): 
lastcontact < "90 days ago" OR GrievanceStatus = Filed

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Searching by date

Broadstripes provides flexible date searching, including support for natural language dates.

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Standard date format

You can search using standard date formats: 
HireDate = 2024-01-15

HireDate >= "January 1, 2025"

"Hire Date" < 6/30/2025

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Natural language dates

Broadstripes understands natural language date expressions, which makes searches easier to write and maintain. Wrap these expressions in quotes: 
CardSignedDate < "11 months ago"

lastcontact > "2 weeks ago"

HireDate >= "one year ago"

LastContact < "90 days ago"

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Common natural language patterns

These expressions are supported:
  • "yesterday"
  • "last week"
  • "last month"
  • "2 weeks ago"
  • "3 months ago"
  • "one year ago"
  • "90 days ago"

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Date range examples

Find people who signed cards in the last month: 
CardSignedDate >= "one month ago"
Find people who haven’t been contacted in over 90 days: 
lastcontact < "90 days ago"
Find people hired this year: 
HireDate >= 2024-01-01
Find people whose membership expires soon: 
MembershipExpires <= "60 days from now"

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Searching for multiple values

You can search for multiple values at once using parentheses. This is useful when you want to find records that match any of several options.

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Basic multi-value syntax

Put your values in parentheses, separated by commas: 
city = (Boston, Cambridge, Somerville)
This finds all records where the city is Boston, Cambridge, OR Somerville.

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More examples

status = (Active, Pending)

department = (Sales, Marketing, "Customer Service")

state = (MA, NH, VT, ME)
Note that if any value in your list contains spaces, it still needs quotes.

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Learn more

Multi-value searches have additional features and options. For complete details, see the Creating multi-value searches guide. One of the most powerful features of Broadstripes search is the ability to search based on properties of related records. These are called sub-query searches or relational searches.

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The concept

Instead of searching for a specific value, you can search for records that have a relationship to other records matching certain criteria.

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Basic sub-query syntax

Use square brackets [] to create a sub-query: 
employer = [state = MA]
This finds all people whose employer is located in Massachusetts. You’re not searching for employers directly—you’re finding people whose employer meets the condition inside the brackets.

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More examples

Find people who work for organizations in the healthcare industry: 
employer = [industry = Healthcare]
Find people whose supervisor has a specific title: 
supervisor = [title = "Department Manager"]

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Combining with other searches

You can combine sub-queries with regular searches: 
city = Boston employer = [state = MA]
This finds people who live in Boston AND whose employer is in Massachusetts.

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Next steps

Now that you understand the basics of search syntax, you can start building more complex queries by:
  • Combining Boolean operators for complex logic
  • Using date searches to find time-sensitive records
  • Exploring the full range of available keywords for your project
For more detailed documentation, visit the Broadstripes Help Center.