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Search for task with no incomplete subtasks

marksully says:
Hi,

I have a list (of projects) that I want create a Smart List from that shows me all items that have no subtasks or are not a subtask themselves.
The goal is to get a list of projects that have no actions specified.
The problem is that the query below does not distinguish between items that have complete or incomplete subtasks.

list:Projects and isSubtask:false and hasSubtasks:false

It would be better if hasSubtasks:false ignores completed tasks or we have another search criteria to identify tasks with no incomplete subtasks.

Many thanks in advance for any help that can be provided.
Mark
Posted at 6:23pm on February 8, 2016
azclaire says:
Is this what you're looking for?

status:completed
Status:incomplete
Posted 8 years ago
robert.ward says:
@marksully I agree it would be nice to have completed subtasks ignored but at this point I don't believe it is possible to do that. If a parent task has a subtask it is going to show up in your search whether the subtasks are complete or not.
Posted 8 years ago
raymond.bergmark Power Poster says:
That would be a great GTD smart list, making sure that all your tasks have a Next action.

hasIncompleteSubtask:false

would be a great search parameter
Posted 8 years ago
raymond.bergmark Power Poster says:
All your projects have Next Actions I meant to say.
Posted 8 years ago
marksully says:
Thanks for the replies everyone.

@azclaire
Thanks but that applies to tasks directly not to a parent task with subtasks.

@robert.ward
Yes, that is what I found out but was hoping I was missing something :)

@raymond.bergmark
Exactly what I am trying to do :)
I want to see what projects (parent tasks) have no next action.

hasIncompleteSubtasks:true/false would be ideal.

The other search parameter that would be a very nice addition is:

taskIndex:n

Where n is the index number of the task (or subtask) in a list (or parent task).

list:Projects AND isSubtask:true AND taskIndex:1 would return the first subtask of a parent task.
In other words the Next Action of any project.
Posted 8 years ago
raymond.bergmark Power Poster says:
@marksully

Could be a problem with taskIndex in knowing the order, how are the subtasks sorted?
Posted 8 years ago
robert.ward says:
@raymond.bergmark currently subtasks are sorted by the same sort order of whatever list you are viewing
Posted 8 years ago
biokinton says:
Other products achieve this functionality by classifying tasks as either 'active' or 'inactive'. For example:

Active tasks might look like this:
* Tasks with no incomplete subtasks
* Tasks whose start date is on or before today
* Tasks with no incomplete dependencies (imagining a world where RTM supports dependent tasks)

Similarly, inactive tasks might look like this:
* Tasks with incomplete subtasks
* Tasks whose start date is after today
* Tasks with incomplete dependencies

With all tasks designated as either 'active' or 'inactive' it'd be a simple matter to introduce a new search operator, isActive, with possible values of true and false. Imagine the following structure:

* Send TPS report to boss (tagged: @work)
** Wait - Karen - provide contents page for TPS report (tagged: wait)

Also, picture a smart list that matches all active tasks tagged with '@work'. The parent task would remain inactive until the sub task is completed, at which point it'll magically flip to being 'active' and appear on the '@work' smart list.

Cheers!
Posted 8 years ago
This topic has now been closed automatically due to a lack of responses in the past 90 days.