Custom Grouping - Tasks User Guide

# Custom Grouping #feature/scripting #feature/grouping > [!released] > Custom grouping was introduced in Tasks 4.0.0. ## Summary - Define your own custom task groups, using JavaScript expressions such as: - `group by function task.urgency.toFixed(3)` - There are loads of examples in [[Grouping]]. - Search for `group by function` in that file. - Find all the **supported tasks properties** in [[Task Properties]] and [[Quick Reference]]. - A number of properties are only available for custom grouping and filters, and not for built-in grouping instructions. - Find all the **supported query properties** in [[Query Properties]]. - Learn a bit about how expressions work in [[Expressions]]. ## Custom grouping introduction The Tasks plugin provides a lot of built-in ways to [[Grouping|group]] similar tasks in Tasks query results. But sometimes the built-in facility just doesn't quite do what you want. **Custom grouping** allows you to **invent your own naming scheme** to group tasks. You use the instruction `group by function` and then add a rule, written in JavaScript, to calculate a group name for a task. See the examples below. ## How it works ### Available Task Properties The Reference section [[Task Properties]] shows all the task properties available for use in custom grouping. The available task properties are also shown in the [[Quick Reference]] table. ### Available Query Properties The Reference section [[Query Properties]] shows all the query properties available for in custom grouping. > [!released] > > - Query properties and placeholders were introduced in Tasks 4.7.0. > - Direct access to Query properties was introduced in Tasks 5.1.0. ### Expressions The instructions look like this: - `group by function <expression>` - `group by function reverse <expression>` The expression is evaluated (calculated) on each task that matches your query, and the expression result is used as the group heading for the task. | Desired heading | Values that you can return | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | A single group name for the task | A single value, such as `'group name'`. An array, with a single value in, such as `['group name']`. | | Display the task potentially more than once (as is done by `group by tags`) | An array of values, such as: `['heading 1', 'heading 2']` | | No heading | `null` Empty string `''` Empty array `[]` | The `expression` can: - use a large range of properties of each task - use any valid JavaScript language features The `expression` must: - use properties on a given task, such as `task.description`, `task.status.name` - See the reference page [[Task Properties]] for all the available properties - return one of: - either a single value of any type that can be converted to string - or an array of values (in which case, the task will be displayed multiple times, once under each heading generated from the array) > [!warning] > The strings returned are rendered as-is. This means, for example, that if the text you return has underscores in (`_`) that are not meant to indicate italics, you should escape them with backslashes ('\_') like this: > > ```javascript > group by function task.description.replaceAll('_', '\\_') >``` ## Example custom groups Below are some examples to give a flavour of what can be done with custom groups. You can find many more examples by searching for `group by function` in the [[Grouping]] page. ### Text property examples  ```javascript group by function task.description ``` - group by description. - This might be useful for finding completed recurrences of the same task. ```javascript group by function task.description.toUpperCase() ``` - Convert the description to capitals. ```javascript group by function task.description.slice(0, 25) ``` - Truncate descriptions to at most their first 25 characters, and group by that string. ```javascript group by function task.description.replace('short', '==short==') ``` - Highlight the word "short" in any group descriptions.  ### Date property examples  ```javascript group by function task.due.category.groupText ``` - Group task due dates in to 5 broad categories: `Invalid date`, `Overdue`, `Today`, `Future` and `Undated`, displayed in that order. - Try this on a line before `group by due` if there are a lot of due date headings, and you would like them to be broken down in to some kind of structure. - The values `task.due.category.name` and `task.due.category.sortOrder` are also available. ```javascript group by function task.due.fromNow.groupText ``` - Group by the [time from now](https://momentjs.com/docs/#/displaying/fromnow/), for example `8 days ago`, `in 11 hours`. - It uses an empty string (so no heading) if there is no due date. - The values `task.due.fromNow.name` and `task.due.fromNow.sortOrder` are also available. ```javascript group by function task.due.format("YYYY-MM-DD dddd") ``` - Like "group by due", except it uses no heading, instead of a heading "No due date", if there is no due date. ```javascript group by function task.due.formatAsDate() ``` - Format date as YYYY-MM-DD or empty string (so no heading) if there is no due date. ```javascript group by function task.due.formatAsDateAndTime() ``` - Format date as YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm or empty string if no due date. - Note: - This is shown for demonstration purposes. - Currently the Tasks plugin does not support storing of times. - Do not add times to your tasks, as it will break the reading of task data. ```javascript group by function task.due.format("YYYY[%%]-MM[%%] MMM", "no due date") ``` - Group by month, for example `2023%%-05%% May` ... - ... which gets rendered by Obsidian as `2023 May`. - Or show a default heading "no due date" if no date. - The hidden month number is added, commented-out between two `%%` strings, to control the sort order of headings. - To escape characters in format strings, you can wrap the characters in square brackets (here, `[%%]`). ```javascript group by function task.due.format("YYYY[%%]-MM[%%] MMM [- Week] WW") ``` - Group by month and week number, for example `2023%%-05%% May - Week 22` ... - ... which gets rendered by Obsidian as `2023 May - Week 22`. - If the month number is not embedded, in some years the first or last week of the year is displayed in a non-logical order.  There are many more date examples in [[Grouping#Due Date]]. ### Number property examples  ```javascript group by function task.urgency.toFixed(3) ``` - Show the urgency to 3 decimal places, unlike the built-in "group by urgency" which uses 2.  ### File property examples  ```javascript group by function task.file.folder ``` - Like 'group by folder', except that it does not escape any Markdown formatting characters in the folder. ```javascript group by function task.file.folder.slice(0, -1).split('/').pop() + '/' ``` - Group by the immediate parent folder of the file containing task. - Here's how it works: - '.slice(0, -1)' removes the trailing slash ('/') from the original folder. - '.split('/')' divides the remaining path up in to an array of folder names. - '.pop()' returns the last folder name, that is, the parent of the file containing the task. - Then the trailing slash is added back, to ensure we do not get an empty string for files in the top level of the vault.  ## Sorting the groups ### Default sort order: alphabetical Group names are sorted alphabetically. For example, the following instruction sorts the groups by priority name, from `High priority` to `Normal priority`: ```javascript group by function task.priorityName +' priority' ``` ### Controlling the sort order of groups It is possible to enforce a sort order by including some hidden text in the group names, inside a `%%....%%` comment. Alternatively, we can use a hidden `task.priorityNumber` value to force the sort order, which will now run from `High priority` to `Lowest priority`: ```javascript group by function '%%' + task.priorityNumber.toString() + '%%' + task.priorityName +' priority' ``` ## Formatting the groups Here is an example of adding formatting to groups. (Make sure you paste the long `group by function task.due.format` lines as single lines, without accidentally splitting the lines.)  ```javascript group by function task.due.format("YYYY %%MM%% MMMM [- Week] WW", "Undated") group by function task.due.format("[%%]YYYY-MM-DD[%%]dddd [](YYYY-MM-DD)[]") ``` Notes: - The formatting draws the enclosed text in a muted colour. - The text in square brackets (`[...]`) is included verbatim in the output. - The named colours such as `var(--color-base-00)` are defined by the current Obsidian theme, and whether the display mode is Light or Dark. - See the [Obsidian documentation Colors page](https://docs.obsidian.md/Reference/CSS+variables/Foundations/Colors) for available colours. It might look like this: ![Tasks Grouped](../images/tasks_custom_groups_with_formatting.png) Tasks with custom date groups, including formatting. ## Tips - To create a complex custom group, start something simple and gradually build it up. - Use the [[Limiting#Limit number of tasks in each group|Limit number of tasks in each group]] facility - `limit groups 1` - when experimenting, to speed up feedback. - You can try out hard-coded expressions, to explore how the custom grouping works: - `group by function null` - `group by function ''` - `group by function []` - `group by function "hello world"` - `group by function ["hello world"]` - `group by function ["hello", "world"]` - `group by function 6 * 7` - `group by function undefined` - See [[Expressions]] for more examples to try out. - You can use: - A task, whose data you can access via all the [[Task Properties]]. - Some information about the file containing the query, which you can access via all the [[Query Properties]]. - The generated text is rendered by Obsidian, so you can insert markdown characters to add formatting to your headings. ## Troubleshooting > [!Warning] > Currently most types of error in function expressions are only detected when the search runs. > > This means that error messages are displayed in the group headings, when results are viewed. > > In a future release, we plan to show errors in formulae when the query block is being read. ### Syntax error The following example gives an error: ````text ```tasks group by function hello ``` ```` gives this heading name: ```text ##### Error: Failed calculating expression "hello". The error message was: hello is not defined ``` > [!todo] > Do syntax-error checking when parsing the instruction