Newbie: I can't get search to work on custom columns

[Rudy1949]

I am new to Calibre and have added several hundred books. For starters, I am trying to set up two Virtual Libraries to make it easier to find books I haven't yet read and books whose metadata I have not yet updated. The latter VL will be useful in the future when I add new books.

I created two custom columns: read and cat (for cataloged). Initially, I set each up as yes/no. When that didn't work I tried setting them up with a list of options: Yes, No. Still didn't work. I have put data in to a few records to test if my search worked.

I am guessing that I am missing something simple in how I set up my searches. I have tried:

#cat: = true
#cat: = Yes
#cat: = Y

What am I missing? Thanks for your help.

Larry

[theducks]

try with no spaces:
#cat:=true

[eschwartz]

try

#cat:"=Yes"

or

#cat:true

for matching values, you need to quote the value. For matching true/false, no = is used.

true/false matches true if the value exists, so that wouldn't be used here -- its only false if empty.

[Rudy1949]

Thank you to TheDucks and Eschwartz. The spaces were the issue. I knew the answer would be simple.

Larry