Querying / Filtering MultiSelect Choice / OptionSet Fields in Dataverse / Dynamics 365

MultiSelect OptionSet (Choices) fields in Dataverse provide a flexible way to store multiple values within a single field. However, querying and filtering these fields require different techniques depending on the approach used.

In this blog post, we will explore various ways to filter records based on the Skills field (cr1a7_skills), which has the following values:

Name	Value
C#	255780000
Java	255780001
Python	255780002

We have the Skills (choices) field in our Contact table.

The query is to fetch all the contact records where skills includes C# or Java.

Filtering Using FetchXML

FetchXML allows filtering MultiSelect Option Set fields using the contain-values operator.

<fetch>
  <entity name="contact">
    <attribute name="fullname" />    
    <filter>
      <condition attribute="cr1a7_skills" operator="contain-values">
        <value>255780000</value>
        <value>255780001</value>
      </condition>
    </filter>
  </entity>
</fetch>

Filtering Using QueryExpression (C#)

Using QueryExpression, we can apply the ContainValues condition to filter Multi

var query = new QueryExpression("contact");
query.ColumnSet.AddColumns("fullname");
query.Criteria.AddCondition("cr1a7_skills", ConditionOperator.ContainValues, 255780000, 255780001);

Filtering Using OData (Web API)

OData allows filtering MultiSelect Option Set fields using the ContainValues function.

https://orgname.crm.dynamics.com/api/data/v9.2/contacts?$select=fullname,createdon,modifiedon,statecode&$filter=(Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.ContainValues(PropertyName='cr1a7_skills',PropertyValues=['255780000','255780001']))

Filtering Using SQL4CDS (XrmToolBox)

If you’re using the SQL4CDS tool in XrmToolBox, you can filter MultiSelect Option Set fields using LIKE conditions.

SELECT contactid,
       fullname
FROM   contact
WHERE  statecode = 0
       AND (cr1a7_skills = '255780000'
            OR cr1a7_skills LIKE '255780000,%'
            OR cr1a7_skills LIKE '%,255780000,%'
            OR cr1a7_skills LIKE '%,255780000'
            OR cr1a7_skills = '255780001'
            OR cr1a7_skills LIKE '255780001,%'
            OR cr1a7_skills LIKE '%,255780001,%'
            OR cr1a7_skills LIKE '%,255780001'            
            );

Filtering Using LINQ (C#)

For LINQ queries, MultiSelect Option Sets must be processed as OptionSetValueCollection.


        if (myServiceClient.IsReady)
        {
            using (var context = new OrganizationServiceContext(myServiceClient))
            {

                var skillValues = new List<int> { 255780000, 255780001 };              
                              
                var allContacts = context.CreateQuery("contact")
                .Where(c => c["cr1a7_skills"] != null &&
                            (int)c["statecode"] == 0)
                .ToList();                
              
                var filteredContacts = allContacts
                    .Where(c => ((OptionSetValueCollection)c["cr1a7_skills"])
                                .Select(osv => osv.Value)
                                .Any(skill => skillValues.Contains(skill)))
                    .Select(c => new
                    {
                        ContactId = c["contactid"],
                        FullName = c.Contains("fullname") ? c["fullname"].ToString() : string.Empty
                    })
                    .ToList();

                var result = filteredContacts;

            }
        }

Get more detailed information

Hope it helps..