Using Flatfile query language

FFQL (Flatfile Query Language) is Flatfile’s custom query language used for filtering data in Sheets. It’s logical, composable, and human-readable.

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Overview

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Search by value

Here’s an example request for searching for rows where the First Name column is “Bender” and the Last Name column is “Rodriguez”.

GET sheets/<sheetId>/records?q=first_name eq Bender and last_name eq Rodriguez

first_name eq Bender and last_name eq Rodriguez

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Search for null

Here’s an example request for searching for rows where the First Name column is null.

GET sheets/<sheetId>/records?q=first_name eq ""

first_name eq ""

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Syntax

The basic syntax of FFQL is:

[field name] <operator> <value>

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Field Name

field name is optional and excluding a field name will search across all fields. For example: eq "Planet Express" will search across all fields for that value. field name can be the field key or the field label.

Labels or values with spaces should be wrapped in quotes. For example: name eq "Bender Rodriguez", or "First Name" eq Bender.

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Operators

FFQL operators are:

• eq - Equals (exact match)
• ne - Not Equal
• lt - Less Than
• gt - Greater Than
• lte - Less Than or Equal To
• gte - Greater Than or Equal To
• like - (Case Sensitive) Like
• ilike - (Case Insensitive) Like

Both like and ilike support the following wildcards:

• % - Matches any number of characters
• _ - Matches a single character

So, for instance, like "Bender%" would match “Bender Rodriguez” and “Bender Bending Rodriguez”.

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Logical Operators

FFQL supports two logical operators:

• and - Returns rows meeting both conditions
• or - Returns rows meeting either conditions (inclusive)

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The is Operator

You can query for message statuses by using the is operator. For example: is error returns all the rows in an error state. is valid returns all the rows in a valid state. first_name is error returns the rows where First Name is in an error state.

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Constructing Queries

Complex queries are possible using a combination of operators:

(
    email like "@gmail.com"
    and (
        "Subscription Status" eq "On-Hold"
        or "Subscription Status" eq "Pending"
    )
    and login_attempts gte 5
)
or is warning

This query would return all the rows that:

1. Have a Gmail email address,
2. Have a Subscription Status of “On-Hold” or “Pending”,
3. And have more than 5 login attempts.

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Usage

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Via search bar

From the search bar in a Workbook, prepend filter: to your FFQL query.

filter: first_name eq Bender and last_name eq Rodriguez

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Via API

FFQL queries can be passed to any REST API endpoint that supports the q parameter.

Here’s an example cURL request using the sheets/<sheetId>/records endpoint:

curl --location 'https://platform.flatfile.com/api/sheets/us_sh_12345678/records?q="Subscription Status" eq "On-Hold" or "Subscription Status" eq "Pending"' \
    --header 'Accept: */*' \
    --header 'Authorization: Bearer <bearer token>'

Make sure to encode percent characters if you use them.