User’s Manual
LDAP
143
Using the Boolean operators and a prefix notation, the basic filters can
be combined to form more complex ones. The ‘&’ character represents
AND, the ‘|’ character represents OR and the ‘!’ character represents
NOT. Here are some examples that explain how to do that:
Note:
(sn=*smith)
Surnames ending
with “smith”.
(sn=s*mi*th)
Surnames
starting with “s”,
containing “mi”
and ending with
“th”.
Greater
than or
equal
(<attr>>=<value>)
(sn>=Smith)
Surnames
lexicographically
greater than or
equal to Smith.
Less or
equal than
(<attr><=<value>)
(sn<=Smith)
Surnames
lexicographically
less than or
equal to Smith.
Presence
(<attr>=*)
(sn=*)
All surnames.
Filter Type
Format
Example
Matches
AND
(&(<filter1>
)(<filter2>)
...)
(&(sn=smith)
(objectclass
=person))
Entries with an object
class of person and a
surname exactly equal to
Smith.
OR
(|(<filter1>
)(<filter2>)
...)
(|(sn=smith)
(cn=*smith))
Entries with a surname
exactly equal to Smith or a
commonname ending in
“smith”.
NOT
(!(<filter>)
)
(!(mail=*))
Entries without a mail
attribute.
It is wise to create filters that sort out unwanted entries based on their object class. For
example, in an address book, you might only want to retrieve entries of the “people” class,
with the common name “John”, leaving out computers called John. This could be achieved
with the following filter: (&(objectclass=person)(cn=john))
Filter Type
Format
Example
Matches
