# \[Question\] Bug in not\_equal filter

**URL:** <https://forum.weaviate.io/t/question-bug-in-not-equal-filter/4125>\
**Category:** Support\
**Tags:** technical\
**Created:** [September 12, 2024, 4:18pm UTC](https://forum.weaviate.io/t/question-bug-in-not-equal-filter/4125 "2024-09-12T16:18:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tejas\_Sharma](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.weaviate.io/tejas_sharma/32/2086_2.png) [@Tejas\_Sharma](https://forum.weaviate.io/u/Tejas_Sharma)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2024, 4:18pm UTC](https://forum.weaviate.io/t/question-bug-in-not-equal-filter/4125/1 "2024-09-12T16:18:14Z")

</div>

When using `not_equal`, it does not seem to work in retrieving objects.

Please see my minimal reproducible code below that creates an object with a `lastUpdateDeviceId` and then uses `lastUpdateDeviceId` as something else and runs _not\_equal_.

However, no objects are returned. But if I remove the not\_equal filter (the 2nd filter), it will return the last inserted objects.

```auto
import uuid
import weaviate
import weaviate.classes as wvc
from weaviate.classes.query import Filter, MetadataQuery
from weaviate.classes.config import Configure, VectorDistances, Property, DataType
from weaviate.classes.tenants import Tenant
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
import pytz

try:
	# TODO: use different credentials for production
	# Best practice: store your credentials in environment variables
	wcd_url = "" #TODO: insert url
	wcd_api_key = "" #TODO: insert key

	client = weaviate.connect_to_weaviate_cloud(
		cluster_url=wcd_url, # Replace with your Weaviate Cloud URL
		auth_credentials=wvc.init.Auth.api_key(wcd_api_key), # Replace with your Weaviate Cloud key
	)
except:
	pass

def parse_weaviate_results(results):
	"""
	Converts results into a list[JSON] for easy
	parsing for the frontends
	"""
	parsed_objs = []

	for result in results:
		parsed_objs.append(parse_weaviate_result(result))	

	return parsed_objs

def parse_weaviate_result(result):

	pst = pytz.timezone('US/Pacific')
	last_update_time_utc = result.metadata.last_update_time
	last_update_time_pst = last_update_time_utc.astimezone(pst)
	print(f"Last update time in PST: {last_update_time_pst} for {result.properties['title']} with device id: {result.properties['lastUpdateDeviceId']}")
	return {
		**result.properties,
		# adding this after unpack to prevent override
		"uniqueid": str(result.uuid),
		"score": result.metadata.distance if hasattr(result.metadata, 'distance') else -1,
		"vector": result.vector,
		"last_updated_utc": result.metadata.last_update_time
	}

nodes_collection = None

# TODO: after production launch, delete this as it's dangerous
# client.collections.delete('Nodes')

try:
	# For all objects
	nodes_collection = client.collections.create(
		name="Nodes",
		vectorizer_config=wvc.config.Configure.Vectorizer.none(),
		vector_index_config=Configure.VectorIndex.hnsw(
			distance_metric=VectorDistances.COSINE
		),
		# Multi tenancy to separate each user's data
		multi_tenancy_config=Configure.multi_tenancy(enabled=True, auto_tenant_creation=True, auto_tenant_activation=True),
		inverted_index_config=Configure.inverted_index( 
			index_null_state=True,
        	index_property_length=True,
			index_timestamps=True
		)
		# Specify some properties beforehand to set right data type (i.e. obj[] instead of string[])
		# properties=[
		# Property(name="tags", data_type=DataType.OBJECT_ARRAY),
		# ]
	)
except:
	nodes_collection = client.collections.get("Nodes")

try:
	# Create tenant on JeopardyQuestion
	nodes_collection.tenants.create(
		tenants=[
			Tenant(name="tenantA"),
			Tenant(name="tenantB"),
		]
	)
except:
	pass

nodes_collection.with_tenant('tenantA').data.insert(
	vector=[0.0] * 384,
	properties={'lastUpdateDeviceId': 'device-78C24351-F40A-4E37-8953-F003FA474877'},
	uuid=str(uuid.uuid4())
)

# get the last inserted object in last 10 mins
last_sync_datetime = datetime.now() - timedelta(minutes=10)

query_result = nodes_collection.with_tenant('tenantA').query.fetch_objects(
	filters=Filter.by_update_time().greater_than(last_sync_datetime) &
		Filter.by_property("lastUpdateDeviceId").not_equal('device-d06e69fb200a1b8fdb8a96d8aff91e9e7839f35d9ac0ad69780067174e26fda1'), 
# if I comment out the above, it will return objects
	include_vector=True, # TOOD: include_vector=True
	return_metadata=MetadataQuery(last_update_time=True),
)

print('Objects returned: ')
print(parse_weaviate_results(query_result.objects))

# TODO: expected the inserted object to be returned
# actual: []

client.close()

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tejas\_Sharma](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.weaviate.io/tejas_sharma/32/2086_2.png) [@Tejas\_Sharma](https://forum.weaviate.io/u/Tejas_Sharma)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2024, 4:27pm UTC](https://forum.weaviate.io/t/question-bug-in-not-equal-filter/4125/2 "2024-09-12T16:27:25Z")

</div>

I am not sure if specifying tokenization will fix it as I found in [Not\_equal filter seems not work](https://forum.weaviate.io/t/not-equal-filter-seems-not-work/1266)

But the main problem is then when specifying properties along with tenancy, I run into this bug here:

> [@Specifying properties with multi-tenancy causes bug](https://forum.weaviate.io/t/specifying-properties-with-multi-tenancy-causes-bug/3946/6):
>
> Hi @DudaNogueira , aplogies for the delay, here’s the minimal reproducible code: import uuid import weaviate import weaviate.classes as wvc from weaviate.classes.query import Filter, MetadataQuery from weaviate.classes.config import Configure, VectorDistances, Property, DataType from weaviate.classes.tenants import Tenant from datetime import datetime, timedelta import pytz try: # TODO: use different credentials for production # Best practice: store your credentials in environment variables …

(which I just updated with a minimal code example too, sorry for the delay on that one)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DudaNogueira](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.weaviate.io/dudanogueira/32/7846_2.png) [@DudaNogueira](https://forum.weaviate.io/u/DudaNogueira)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2024, 1:52pm UTC](https://forum.weaviate.io/t/question-bug-in-not-equal-filter/4125/3 "2024-09-16T13:52:30Z")

</div>

Hi!

I have created a code with tokenization set to `field`, and now it works as expected

```auto
from weaviate import classes as wvc
client.collections.delete("Test")
collection = client.collections.create(
    name="Test",
    vectorizer_config=wvc.config.Configure.Vectorizer.none(),
    vector_index_config=wvc.config.Configure.VectorIndex.hnsw(
        distance_metric=wvc.config.VectorDistances.COSINE
    ),
    # Multi tenancy to separate each user's data
    multi_tenancy_config=wvc.config.Configure.multi_tenancy(
        enabled=True, auto_tenant_creation=True, auto_tenant_activation=True
    ),
    properties=[
        wvc.config.Property(
            name="lastUpdateDeviceId",
            data_type=wvc.config.DataType.TEXT,
            tokenization=wvc.config.Tokenization.FIELD
        )
    ],
    inverted_index_config=wvc.config.Configure.inverted_index(
        index_null_state=True,
        index_property_length=True,
        index_timestamps=True
    )
    # Specify some properties beforehand to set right data type (i.e. obj[] instead of string[])
    # properties=[
    # Property(name="tags", data_type=DataType.OBJECT_ARRAY),
    # ]
)

collection.tenants.create(
    tenants=[
        wvc.tenants.Tenant(name="tenantA"),
        wvc.tenants.Tenant(name="tenantB"),
    ]
)

from weaviate.util import generate_uuid5
collection.with_tenant('tenantA').data.insert(
	vector=[0.0] * 384,
	properties={'lastUpdateDeviceId': 'device-78C24351-F40A-4E37-8953-F003FA474877'},
	uuid=generate_uuid5("object1")
)

from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone
last_sync_datetime = datetime.now(timezone.utc).astimezone() - timedelta(minutes=10)

collection.with_tenant('tenantA').query.fetch_objects(
	filters=wvc.query.Filter.by_update_time().greater_than(last_sync_datetime) &
		wvc.query.Filter.by_property("lastUpdateDeviceId").not_equal('device-d06e69fb200a1b8fdb8a96d8aff91e9e7839f35d9ac0ad69780067174e26fda1'), 
	include_vector=True,
	return_metadata=wvc.query.MetadataQuery(last_update_time=True),
)

```

Note that, if I set the search query to `d06e69fb200a1b8fdb8a96d8aff91e9e7839f35d9ac0ad69780067174e26fda1`, instead of `device-d0....` it will also work.

This is because `device-d06....` will become two key workds: `device` and `d06...`

Let me know if this helps!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tejas\_Sharma](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.weaviate.io/tejas_sharma/32/2086_2.png) [@Tejas\_Sharma](https://forum.weaviate.io/u/Tejas_Sharma)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2024, 6:17pm UTC](https://forum.weaviate.io/t/question-bug-in-not-equal-filter/4125/4 "2024-09-16T18:17:30Z")

</div>

Thanks Duda!

Our nodes collection is already in production though so the alternate solution you mentioned was to just remove ‘device-’ from the front right?

I guess to update the property, I can do

```auto
articles.config.add_property(
    Property(
        name="onHomepage",
        data_type=DataType.BOOL
    )
)

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DudaNogueira](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.weaviate.io/dudanogueira/32/7846_2.png) [@DudaNogueira](https://forum.weaviate.io/u/DudaNogueira)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2024, 6:40pm UTC](https://forum.weaviate.io/t/question-bug-in-not-equal-filter/4125/5 "2024-09-16T18:40:32Z")

</div>

Hi!

You will need to set the tokenization of that property to FIELD.

Check this part, where we define the `lastUpdateDeviceId` property.

> [@DudaNogueira](#):
>
> ```auto
> wvc.config.Property(
> name="lastUpdateDeviceId",
> data_type=wvc.config.DataType.TEXT,
> tokenization=wvc.config.Tokenization.FIELD
> )
> 
> ```

Weaviate will tokenize you content, according to the tokenization.

if you have property with a value `device-123456`, and the tokenization is word (the default), you will endup with two keywords: `device` and `123456`.

Now, when the tokenization is set to `field`, you endup with only one keyword: `device-123456`.

So the best solution is defining this new property.

Let me know if this helps!