Restricted Words and Characters
Last updated: 9/14/2026Reserved Characters
MQL has a list of reserved characters:
=, !, <, >: equality and non-equality operators
(, ): specify precedence of filters and = ANY, and = ALL list boundaries
+, -: integer sign characters and date constant delimiter
Comma (,): SELECT, ORDER BY, = ANY, and = ALL list delimiter
Space ( ), \t, \n: whitespace characters
Single quote ('): bound string constants, date constants or datetime constants used as filter values
Double quote ("): quote attribute names, or search words that have spaces or punctuation characters in text filter or semantic_search_text filter
Dot (.): used to specify a profile name or related object property
Reserved Words
MQL also has a list of reserved words. These words need to be surrounded by double quote character(") if you wish to use them in filter values.
After
, all
. and
, any
, before
, between
,
category
, contains
, content
, count
, day
, days
,
ends
, exists
, ExpandedMembersOfRole
, hour
, hours
,
last
, me
, membersOfRole
, minute
, minutes
, not
,
or
, relevance
, semantic_search_text
, starts
, text
,
today
, where
, with
, within
, yesterday
.
The semantic_search_text filter has its own set of reserved words, such as term(s), report(s), and file(s). Refer to Meta Integration Search Help for more information.
To include a single-quote character within a filter value, write two adjacent single quotes.