I was able to construct valid queries per the examples given. So fwiw I am posting my syntax constructs here…
The goal appears essentially to be able to string together “multiple ANDed elements” … “separated/combined by multiple OR statements”. I write and save a lot of complex filters (searches) and was concerned if I had missed this particular case (which not included in my personalized help section on this topic), so this post interested me a lot. Indeed, I was uncertain if several ANDed items was working, or correctly. SO …I constructed the suggested examples above and ran some tests.
The short of it is thus…
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#1 was (until:now OR -has:date) AND #home AND -is:completed
SYNTAX used: until:now #home -is:completed OR -has:date -is:completed #home
If I understand the original post correctly, this is the solution for that one.
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#2 was “show me items ‘without dates’ or ‘with dates but not #defer’ or ‘with defer dates that have arrived’”
Based on (like): -has:date OR (has:date and -#defer) OR ( has:date #defer until:today )
SYNTAX Used: -has:date OR has:date -#defer OR has:date #defer until:0d
I also tried variations of until: and within:
Again, if I understood the (second or third) challenge correctly, then this solves it.
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I just wanted to be sure this was recorded here. Everything seems as it should be, albeit, grouping syntax would be (have been) so much less brain damage, but I understand why they did not do this (back when).
Its heartbreaking the Dynalist project is “parked”. What a great project and tool.
Cheers All.