Re: Question about searches (ultimately for agenda)

[Matt Lundin <mdl@imapmail.org>]

Mueen Nawaz <mueen@nawaz.org> writes:

> In the docs (10.3.3 Matching tags and properties), I see ways to do
> tag searches that can also search TODO states.
>
> Can I also search TODO levels? For example, in one file covered by the
> agenda, I use the usual DONE to denote done. In another, which is
> focused on simply stuff that I have borrowed/lent, I have RETURNED as
> my "DONE" state.
>
> I occasionally apply tags to headings with the name of the person
> involved. So let's say that I've put :Jack: on some headings of items
> that have been lent and returned. But I also have :Jack: in my other
> .org files that are not about lending/borrowing.
>
> I want to search for all headlines that have :Jack: in them, but
> exclude anything that is a "DONE" state - so exclude both DONE and
> RETURNED.
>
> I know I can just do:
> Jack-TODO="DONE"-TODO="RETURNED"

Provided DONE and RETURNED are inactive todos than the following should
suffice:

C-a M Jack [RET]

AFAIK, C-a M returns only active TODOs that match the tag. Thus any
inactive state will be excluded. (There may be a variable that
controls this, but I'm not aware of it.)

Best,
Matt