Using Filters with OData/API calls
You can provide filters in API calls to get targeted information in return. The syntax for this follows the Microsoft REST API guidelines. For example, to GET all open (unpaid) sales invoices above 1000.00 excl tax, call:
<endpoint>/companies(bb6d48b6-c7b2-4a38-9a93-ad5506407f12)/salesInvoices?$filter=status eq 'Open' and totalAmountExcludingTax gt 1000.00
You can either filter by range or by property. To learn how to develop a good filter expression, see Entering Criteria in Filters. To know more about filter expressions and their equivalent AL expressions in web services, check out Filter Expressions.
Using Filter Expressions in OData URIs
You use filter expressions in OData URIs to limit the results in a returned document. This article lists the filter expressions, and describes the equivalent field or table filter in AL. It provides examples of syntax for using filter expressions in OData URIs and applications.
Filter Expressions
To add a filter to an OData URI, add $filter= to the end of the name of the published web service. For example, the following URI filters the City field in the Customer page to return all customers who are located in Miami:
https://localhost:7048/BC130/OData/Company('CRONUS International Ltd.')/Customer?$filter=City eq 'Miami'
The following table shows the filters that are supported in Business Central OData web services and their equivalent AL filter expressions. All examples are based either on page 21, Customer (published as Customer), or on page 20, General Ledger Entry (published as GLEntry).
Performance Note
Filters that don't have equivalent AL expressions might take longer to process compared to filters that have equivalent AL expressions. This is because filters that don't have equivalent AL expressions are processed on the Business Central Server tier, and filters that have equivalent AL expressions are processed on the Business Central database tier.
| Definition | Example and explanation | Equivalent AL expression |
|---|---|---|
| Select a range of values | $filter=Entry_No gt 610 and Entry_No lt 615 Query on GLEntry service. Returns entry numbers 611 through 614. |
.. |
| And | $filter=Country_Region_Code eq 'ES' and Payment_Terms_Code eq '14 DAYS'Query on Customer service. Returns customers in Spain where Payment_Terms_Code=14 DAYS. |
\& |
| Or | $filter= Country_Region_Code eq 'ES' or Country_Region_Code eq 'US'Query on Customer service. Returns customers in Spain and the United States. Alert: You can use OR operators to apply different filters on the same field. However, you can\'t use OR operators to apply filters on two different fields. |
| |
| Less than | $filter=Entry_No lt 610Query on GLEntry service. Returns entry numbers that are less than 610. |
\< |
| Greater than | $filter= Entry_No gt 610Query on GLEntry service. Returns entry numbers 611 and higher. |
> |
| Greater than or equal to | $filter=Entry_No ge 610Query on GLEntry service. Returns entry numbers 610 and higher |
>= |
| Less than or equal to | $filter=Entry_No le 610Query on GLEntry service. Returns entry numbers up to and including 610. |
\<= |
| Different from (not equal) | $filter=VAT_Bus_Posting_Group ne 'EXPORT'Query on Customer service. Returns all customers with VAT_Bus_Posting_Group not equal to EXPORT. |
\<> |
| endswith | $filter=endswith(VAT_Bus_Posting_Group,'RT')Query on Customer service. Returns all customers with VAT_Bus_Posting_Group values that end in \'RT\' |
* |
| startswith | $filter=startswith(Name, 'S')Query on Customer service. Returns all customers names beginning with \'S\'. |
* |
| contains | $filter=contains(Name, 'urn')Query on Customer service. Returns customer records for customers with names containing the string "urn". |
|
| indexof | $filter=indexof(Location_Code, 'BLUE') eq 0Query on Customer service. Returns customer records for customers having a location code beginning with the string BLUE. |
|
| replace | $filter=replace(City, 'Miami', 'Tampa') eq 'CODERED' |
|
| substring | $filter=substring(Location_Code, 5) eq 'RED'Query on Customer service. Returns true for customers with the string RED in their location code starting as position 5. |
|
| tolower | $filter=tolower(Location_Code) eq 'code red' |
|
| toupper | $filter=toupper(FText) eq '2ND ROW' |
|
| trim | $filter=trim(FCode) eq 'CODE RED' |
|
| concat | $filter=concat(concat(FText, ', '), FCode) eq '2nd row, CODE RED' |
|
| round | $filter=round(FDecimal) eq 1 |
|
| floor | $filter=floor(FDecimal) eq 0 |
|
| ceiling | $filter=ceiling(FDecimal) eq 1 |