Filtering Items Using a Boolean Comparison

Outlook Developer Reference

Boolean values are specified differently in a filter in Microsoft Jet syntax than in a filter in DAV Searching and Locating (DASL) syntax.

Jet Queries

In Jet syntax, boolean operators such as True/False, Yes/No, On/Off, and so on, should be used as is and should not be converted to a string. For example, to create a filter to return unread items, you can use this filter:

  criteria = "[UnRead] = True"
Bb147585.vs_note(en-us,office.12).gif  Note
If you convert the boolean value to a comparison string by enclosing it in quotation marks, then a Jet filter using any non-empty comparison string and filtering on a boolean property will return items that have the property True. A Jet filter comparing an empty string with a boolean property will return items that have the property False.

DASL Queries

In DASL syntax, you must convert True/False to an integer value, where 0 represents False and 1 represents True; likewise for Yes/No and On/Off. The DASL filter to return unread items is as follows:

  criteria = "@SQL=" & Chr(34) & "urn:schemas:httpmail:read" & Chr(34) _
& " = 0"

See Also