Table of Contents

Query Filter Language

Last updated: 2025 March 21

New in v3 is support for an advanced query filter language. It is inspired by the MSTest Graph Query Filter, but with several differences in final implementation.

The intention of the query filter language is to allow a more powerful and flexible way to filter tests than the existing simple filters (which allow filtering based on namespace, fully qualified class names, fully qualified method names, and traits).

Note

In order to better reason about how filtering works, you may use either query filters or simple filters, but you may not use both at the same time._

Query language components

Below is a list of components of the query language.

Note

All string comparisons are done case insensitively. That means /foo and /FOO are the same query.

Query is segmented

The query filter supported in xUnit.net v3 is structured with between one and four segments:

/<assemblyFilter>/<namespaceFilter>/<classFilter>/<methodFilter>

The four segments represent the four parts of a fully qualified test method in an assembly. For the purposes of illustration, let's assume a test method of MyNamespace.MySubNamespace.MyClass+MySubClass.MyTestMethod that lives in C:\Dev\MyProjects\Tests\bin\Debug\net8.0\MyTests.dll:

  • assemblyFilter is matched against the test assembly name (i.e., MyTests)
  • namespaceFilter is matched against the namespace of the test (i.e., MyNamespace.MySubNamespace)
  • classFilter is matched against the name of the test class (i.e., MyClass+MySubClass)
  • methodFilter is matched against the name of the test method (i.e., MyTestMethod)

Example:

/MyTests/MyNamespace.MySubNamespace/MyClass+MySubClass/MyTestMethod will match the example test method above.

Use a wildcard in a segment to indicate a "match all"

For any segment, you can use * to represent a "match all".

In addition, any segment left off the query is considered to be an implicit "match all".

Examples:

  • / is equivalent to /*, /*/*, /*/*/*, and /*/*/*/*.
  • /MyAssembly is equivalent to /MyAssembly/*, /MyAssembly/*/*, and /MyAssembly/*/*/*.
  • /MyAssembly/MyNamespace is equivalent to /MyAssembly/MyNamespace/* and /MyAssembly/MyNamespace/*/*.
  • etc.
Note

Queries must always start with /, even if you are not specifying any segment values. Specifying more than four segments results in a parsing error for the query.

Use a trait filter

To filter based on a trait, add an appropriate trait expression to the end of your query, in the form of [name=value] or [name!=value].

Examples:

  • /[category=slow] means "run all tests that have a trait named category with a value named slow.
  • /[category!=slow] means "run all tests that do not have a trait named category with a value named slow.

Use wildcards to start/end a query expression

You may start and/or end a query expression with * to indicate a wildcard that matches 0 or more characters. This includes both segment query expressions as well as the name and/or value portion of a trait filter.

Query segment examples:

  • query means "match exactly against query"
    • ✅ query (matches)
    • ❌ 1query (does not match)
    • ❌ query2 (does not match)
    • ❌ 1query2 (does not match)
  • query* means "match against anything that starts with query"
    • ✅ query (matches)
    • ❌ 1query (does not match)
    • ✅ query2 (matches)
    • ❌ 1query2 (does not match)
  • *query means "match against anything that ends with query"
    • ✅ query (matches)
    • ✅ 1query (matches)
    • ❌ query2 (does not match)
    • ❌ 1query2 (does not match)
  • *query* means "match against anything that contains query"
    • ✅ query (matches)
    • ✅ 1query (matches)
    • ✅ query2 (matches)
    • ✅ 1query2 (matches)

Trait filter example:

  • [*name*=*value*] means "match against a trait whose name contains name and whose value contains value
Note

The * wildcard is only allowed at the start or end, and not in the middle, of any query.

Note

In v3, all simple queries have been updated to support this same start and/or end wildcards, including using wildcards for trait names and/or values. In v2, only the simple method query supported wildcards.

Combine multiple queries in a single segment

Within a single segment (or within a trait query), you may combine multiple matching patterns by using parenthesis, separated by either | (for OR) or & (for AND). Parenthesis in this situation are not optional.

If your multipart query contains three or more pieces, they must either be all the same type (OR vs. AND), or must use extra parenthesis to indicate how the operators are to be grouped. A query like (A)|(B)|(C) is legal, but (A)|(B)&(C) is not and must be expressed either as ((A)|(B))&(C) or (A)|((B)&(C)).

Multipart queries cannot span across segment boundaries.

Examples:

  • /*/*/*/(False)|(True) means "run all tests whose test method is named either False or True".
  • /[(name1=value1)&(name2=value2)] means "run all tests with both traits name1=value1 and name2=value2.
  • /[((name1=value1a)|(name1=value1b))&(name2!=value2)] means "run all tests with either traits name1=value1a or name1=value1b, and also with no trait matching name2=value2.

Negate a segment query

You may negate a segment query by prepending ! on the segment filter expression.

Note

If you are using wildcard expressions, the negate operator comes before the wildcard (i.e., !*, not *!). If you are combining multiple queries in a single segment, the negate operator is placed inside the parenthesis, not outside (i.e., (!expression), not !(expression)).

Examples:

  • /*/!*foo means "run all tests whose namespace does not end in foo"
  • /*/*/(Foo*)&(!*Bar) means "run all tests whose class name starts with Foo and does not end with Bar
Note

Negating a trait query is done by using [name!=value], not ![name=value].

Escaping special characters

You can escape special characters (like ( and )) and any other character your terminal might not directly support by encoding them using the hexadecimal HTML character encoding scheme. Escape the value with &#x1234; where 1234 is the 1-4 digit hex code for a UTF-16 character.

Commonly escaped special characters:

  • ! is &#x21;
  • ( is &#x28;
  • ) is &#x29;
  • / is &#x2f;
  • = is &#x3d;
  • [ is &#x5b;
  • ] is &#x5d;

Specifying a query filter

The way you pass a query filter depends on whether you're interacting with an xUnit.net CLI or not.

If you specify more than one query filter, they run in a logical OR mode; that is, tests which may any one of the filters will match.

Note

If you are using dotnet run or dotnet test to run your tests, passing command line options must be done after you pass -- first, so that the dotnet executable knows how to differentiate between command line switches meant for dotnet (before the --) vs. command line switches meant for the test project (after the --).

Running a test project directly (xUnit.net CLI mode), via dotnet run, or via xunit.v3.console.exe

You can specify a query filter using -filter expression (note that if the expression contains spaces, you should quote the whole expression, like -filter "expression" so that the parser knows where your expression starts and ends).

If you're using xunit.v3.console.exe and you're running multiple test projects, then the query is passed to all test projects. Ensure that your query filter includes an assembly name filter segment if the filter is only intended to match tests from a subset of the test projects.

Examples:

  • bin/Debug/net8.0/MyTests.exe -filter /[category=fast] (xUnit.net CLI mode)
  • dotnet run -- -filter /[category=fast]
  • /path/to/xunit.v3.console.exe bin/Debug/net8.0/MyTests.dll -filter /[category=fast]

Running a test project directly (Microsoft Testing Platform CLI mode) or via dotnet test

You can specify a query filter using --filter-query expression (note that if the expression contains spaces, you should quote the whole expression, like --filter-query "expression" so that the parser knows where your expression starts and ends).

Examples:

  • bin/Debug/net8.0/MyTests.exe --filter-query /[category=fast] (Microsoft Testing Platform CLI mode)
  • dotnet test -- --filter-query /[category=fast]
Note

If a query filter ends up filtering out all the tests in a test assembly, then Microsoft Testing Platform will fail that test assembly since it fails test assemblies without at least 1 test in them. You can tell it not return a failure code in this situation by adding --ignore-exit-code 8 to your command line. For more information, see "Microsoft.Testing.Platform exit codes" and xUnit.net issue #3270.

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