Kaizen #178 - Filters & Criteria in Zoho CRM APIs

Kaizen #178 - Filters & Criteria in Zoho CRM APIs


Hey everyone, and welcome back to another week of Kaizen!

Ever felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data in your Zoho CRM? Sifting through countless records to find exactly what you need, or to operate on specific records that meet a certain criteria, can indeed be a real time-sink. Fortunately, Zoho CRM provides powerful filtering capabilities through its APIs to streamline this process.

What is criteria or filter?

In Zoho CRM APIs, criteria refer to the conditions applied to filter records when making API requests. These conditions can be simple (single condition) or complex (multiple conditions) and are specified using various comparators.

Depending on the API type and request method, the filter can be provided either:
  • As a query parameter (filters) – Used in GET requests.
  • As an input key in the request body (criteria)– Used in POST and PUT requests   

Where is "filters" used in Zoho CRM APIs?

The filters parameter is supported across multiple Zoho CRM API endpoints, including but not limited to:

Where is "criteria" used in Zoho CRM APIs?

The criteria key is supported across multiple Zoho CRM API endpoints, including but not limited to:
The filters parameter and criteria key are supported across multiple Zoho CRM API endpoints. Refer to our API help documentation for individual APIs to check if these options are available. Check the Parameters section for filters and the Input JSON section for criteria
 in the API's help documentation.

Constructing a criteria or a filter

Zoho CRM APIs use JSON-based criteria/filters expressions, which consist of:
  • Field API Name – The field to filter (e.g., Email, Created_Time, Status).
  • Comparator – The operator defining how the field should be compared (equals, greater_than, etc.).
  • Value – The specific value to compare against.

Single Condition

A single condition is structured as follows:
{
  "field": {
    "api_name": "Post_Number"
  },
  "comparator": "greater_than",
  "value": 1
}

Here,
  • field specifies the API name of the field to be filtered.
  • comparator indicates the type of comparison to be made (e.g., greater_than).
  • value is the value against which the field is compared.

Multiple Conditions

When multiple conditions are required, they can be grouped using the logical operators "and" or "or". Here’s the syntax of how to structure multiple conditions:
{
  "group_operator": "or",
  "group": [
    {
      "field": {
        "api_name": "Post_Number"
      },
      "comparator": "greater_than",
      "value": 1
    },
    {
      "field": {
        "api_name": "Pre_Number"
      },
      "comparator": "greater_than",
      "value": 1
    }
  ]
}

Here,
  • group_operator can be "and" or "or". It defines how the conditions within the group array are evaluated. "and" means all conditions must be true, while "or" means at least one condition must be true.
  • group
     contains an array of condition objects, each with its own field, comparator, and value.
Following is an example for a criteria with more than two conditions:
{
  "criterion": {
    "group_operator": "and",
    "group": [
      {
        "field": {
          "api_name": "Post_Number"
        },
        "comparator": "greater_than",
        "value": 1
      },
      {
        "group_operator": "or",
        "group": [
          {
            "field": {
              "api_name": "Pre_Number"
            },
            "comparator": "greater_than",
            "value": 1
          },
          {
            "field": {
              "api_name": "Status"
            },
            "comparator": "equals",
            "value": "Active"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Supported Comparators for Different Field Types

The available comparators depend on the field type. The following table outlines the supported comparators for different field types:

Field Type
Supported Comparators
Example
text/ textarea
equal, not_equal, contains, not_contains , starts_with, ends_with
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "text"
   },
   "value": "zoho"

}
email
equal, not_equal, contains, not_contains, starts_with, ends_with
{
   "comparator": "contains",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "Email"
   },
   "value": "patricia"
}
phone
equal, not_equal, contains, not_contains, starts_with, ends_with
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "Phone"
   },
   "value": "9999999999"
}
website
equal, not_equal, contains, not_contains, starts_with, ends_with
{
   "comparator": "contains",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "website"
   },
   "value": "zoho"
}
picklist
equal, not_equal, contains, not_contains, starts_with, ends_with
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "picklist"
   },
   "value": [
       "Cold Call",
        "Call"
   ]
}
multiselectpicklist
equal, not_equal, contains, not_contains, starts_with, ends_with
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "Multi_Select_Picklist"
   },
   "value": [
         "Cold Call",
        "Call"
   ]
}
date
equal, not_equal, less_than, greater_than, between, not_between, less_equal, greater_equal
Example 1:
{
   "comparator": "less_than",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "date"
   },
   "value": "01-01-2025"

}
Example 2:
{
   "comparator": "between",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "date"
   },
   "value": [
          "01-01-2025",
           "02-01-2025",
}
datetime
equal, not_equal, less_than, greater_than, between, not_between, less_equal, greater_equal
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "date"
   },
   "value": "2025-01-01T12:12:06+05:30"
}
autonumber
equal, not_equal, contains, not_contains, starts_with, ends_with
{
   "comparator": "starts_with",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "Auto_Number"
   },
   "value": "A01"
}
integer
equal, not_equal, less_than, less_equal, greater_than, greater_equal, between, not_between
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "integer"
   },
   "value": 4
}
currency
equal, not_equal, contains, not_contains, starts_with, ends_with
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "Currency"
   },
   "value": "INR"
}
double
equal, not_equal, less_than, less_equal, greater_than, greater_equal, between, not_between
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "Double"
   },
   "value": "123"
}
Boolean
equal
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "Boolean"
   },
   "value": true
}
big int
equal, not_equal, less_than, less_equal, greater_than, greater_equal, between, not_between
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "id"
   },
   "value": "1234800023843923"
}
lookup
equal, not_equal, less_than, less_equal, greater_than, greater_equal, between, not_between
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "Lookup.name"
   },
   "value": "Name1"
}
ownerlookup/userlookup
in, not_in 
{
   "comparator": "equal",
   "field": {
       "api_name": "Modified_By",
       "id": "400029000000000479"
   },
   "value": [
       {
           "id": "400029000003984001",
           "name": "User1"
       },
       {
           "id": 400029000003984002,
           "name": "User2"
       }
   ]
}
formula
Comparator will depend on the return type
-



Notes
Note: 
  • Use quotes for strings and picklists; do not use quotes for numbers and boolean values.
  • While Zoho CRM’s filtering capabilities are extensive, certain field types — including subforms, multi-select lookup fields, multi-user lookup fields, and multi-module lookup fields — are not supported in filters and criteria. The above table lists all the supported field types. 

Filtering in COQL Queries

COQL (CRM Object Query Language) provides a structured way to retrieve records from Zoho CRM using SQL-like queries. Unlike the standard API filters discussed above, COQL uses the WHERE clause to define conditions.

Here is a sample COQL query:

{
  "select_query": "SELECT Full_Name, Email FROM Leads WHERE Lead_Status = 'Qualified'"
}

Here, Lead_Status = 'Qualified' acts as the filtering criteria.

{
  "select_query": "SELECT Full_Name, Email FROM Leads WHERE (Lead_Status = 'Qualified' AND City = 'New York') OR (Industry = 'Software')"
}

The AND and OR operators allow for multiple conditions in the WHERE clause. We have covered COQL API, and all the supported field types and operators in detail in our Kaizen posts. Kindly refer to them for more details.

Criteria in Search API

In Search API, filtering records is done using the criteria (string) input key in the request body. Unlike filters in GET requests or criteria in other APIs, criteria here is a text-based filter expression that follows a specific syntax.

(({api_name}:{operator}:{value})and/or({api_name}:{operator}:{value}))
  • You can combine up to 10 conditions using and or or.
  • Only the equals operator is supported for encrypted fields.
  • When using "equals" in Search API, it behaves like "contains", meaning it fetches records that include the specified value, not just exact matches.
  • If you use parentheses (), commas, or backslashes \ in values, you must escape them properly and encode the value before making the request.
Field Type
Supported Operators
Date, DateTime
equals, not_equal, greater_equal, greater_than, less_equal, less_than, between, in
Integer, Currency, Decimal
equals, not_equal, greater_equal, greater_than, less_equal, less_than, between, in
Boolean
equals, not_equal
textarea
equals, not_equal, starts_with
Lookup (user/owner)
equals, not_equal, in
Picklist, Autonumber
equals, not_equal, in
Text, Email, Phone, Website 
equals, not_equal, starts_with, in
multiselectpicklist
equals, not_equal, in, starts_with.
bigint
equals, not_equal, greater_than, greater_equal, less_than, less_equal, between, in
percent
equals, not_equal, greater_than, greater_equal, less_than, less_equal, between, in
formula
The supported operators of the formula datatype will depend on the return type of the formula


Have questions or use cases to share? Feel free to share them in the comments below or reach out to our support team directly at support@zohocrm.com.

Thank you for joining us this week. Stay tuned for more insights in our upcoming Kaizen posts! Happy Coding!!