Querying archived posts in Sanity.io causing unexpected results

13 replies

Last updated: May 9, 2023

So I am running into what I think is an odd issue where my query looks like this

export const allPosts = groq`*[_type == "post" && isArchived != true]{
  ${postFields}
}`

As when I inspect my post I see

isArchived:true

and I don't want to display posts that are listed as archived. However, this still shows that post. If I update the query to

export const allPosts = groq`*[_type == "post" && isArchived == false]{
  ${postFields}
}`

or even

export const allPosts = groq`*[_type == "post" && !isArchived]{
  ${postFields}
}`

the posts are hidden that are listed as archived

AI Update

This is a common gotcha with GROQ's inequality operator! The issue you're experiencing comes down to how GROQ handles null values in filter expressions.

When you use isArchived != true, here's what happens:

If isArchived is false, the expression evaluates to true ✓ (document matches)
If isArchived is true, the expression evaluates to false (document is filtered out)
If isArchived is null or undefined, the expression evaluates to null

The key problem is that when a filter expression returns null, GROQ treats it as falsy and filters out that document. However, the behavior can be inconsistent or confusing because null in boolean contexts doesn't always behave as you'd expect, and the != operator specifically returns null when comparing with null values.

So isArchived != true should theoretically work, but the way null is handled in filter contexts can lead to unexpected results. This is why your working solutions are more reliable:

Option 1: Explicit false check

*[_type == "post" && isArchived == false]

This explicitly matches documents where isArchived is exactly false. Documents where the field is null or undefined will NOT match (because null == false returns null, which is falsy in filters).

Option 2: Negation operator (recommended)

*[_type == "post" && !isArchived]

This is the most idiomatic approach in GROQ. The ! operator will evaluate to true for false, null, and undefined values, so it includes all non-archived posts regardless of whether the field exists.

Option 3: Explicit null handling If you want to be very specific about which documents to include, you can use the defined() function:

*[_type == "post" && (!defined(isArchived) || isArchived == false)]

This explicitly includes posts where isArchived doesn't exist OR is false.

For most use cases with a boolean "archived" flag, !isArchived is your best bet - it's clean, readable, and treats missing values the same as false, which is typically what you want for feature flags like this.

Which API version?

Also,

isArchived != true

will also match any post that does not have the

isArchived

attribute, or where it's null.

I have

export const apiVersion = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_SANITY_API_VERSION || '2023-01-01'

And that is fine if it matches posts that don't have

isArchived

or it's null. However, my issue is that it was still matching posts that had it set to

true

I don't know what API version that is, just make sure you are using

v2022*

v2023*

That is odd, if so. This is an extremely well-tested type of query. Can you reproduce it with a single query URL or using the Vision plugin?

Oh I have always see a full date used for

apiVersion

🤔 even in

user G

tutorial she says you can put any date you want basically. The vision plugin works as expected but the API version shows

v2021-10-21

🤔
But examples like
this show the

apiVersion

2022-11-15

🤔

Yes, you need a full date. I mean you need an API version that starts with 2022 or 2023.

🤦‍♂️ the problem was me 😅So I have

   defineField({
      type: 'boolean',
      name: 'isArchived',
      title: 'Archive Post?',
      description: 'Archived posts will not be shown in the front-end',
      initialValue: false,
    }),

where the initial value
should be false but somehow my editor got a state where the boolean is right in the middle and that was the one that kept showing up when

isArchived !== true

but disappearing when I did

!isArchived

😅

What would be the safer bet? Just to do

!isArchived

I think that's clean

Same, I just don't know how the post got into a null state as when I created a new post it was in the false state and even toggling it, it still did not get into the null state 🤔

If you want to handle the null state too, there's nothing wrong with

!= true

either. 🙂

Yea that might be safer, my client is a senior citizen building a website for senior citizens in our city so whatever I can do to make it as bullet proof as possible I want to do.

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Querying archived posts in Sanity.io causing unexpected results

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