---
title: Getting started with Carrot
slug: getting-started-with-carrot
docTags: 
createdAt: 2023-01-25T15:53:40.000Z
---

Carrot (Carrot Query Language) is the most powerful way to search, create and reference data across your ChartHop organization using custom or built-in functions and filters. 

With Carrot you can:

- Create powerful calculations using company data to evaluate financial performance and capture valuable employee data analytics using smart fields.
- Filter your employee data for customizable visualizations using the **Map**,** Datasheet**, and **Dashboards**.
- Quickly reference employee data almost anywhere in the ChartHop platform including in the [Org Chart](docId\:BepXEDmK2n5nOxoItxF7x), [Data Sheet](docId\:XTd4DG4I_4_nMwjfEsq0S), [Map](docId\:jFytgiDGyYwmYaY5p0LnB), [Dashboards](docId\:kA8-kvT0AUi_ekF7MECLD), [Smart Fields](docId\:XNd9irlWsHFCeXmwwkSbA), and app configurations.



![](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/CXAjUAezd9VEEVQBIYmdw/TP2e3G5ij20cP22Mw5BAM_screen-shot-2022-12-20-at-101654-am.png "Carrot in use on the Data Sheet")

## Using Carrot

One of Carrot's greatest values comes from its ability to enable users to build advanced structured queries, filters, and smart fields that perform calculations.

### Constructing Carrot queries

A simple query in Carrot consists of a *field*, followed by an *operator*, followed by one or more *values* or *functions*. For example:

```none
title="Director of Engineering"
```

This query will find all ChartHop users in the organization with the job title of "Director of Engineering". In this case, the query uses the `title`* field*, the EQUALS *operator*, and the *value *`Director of Engineering`.

For more complex queries, *operators* can be used to filter data by more than one criteria. For example:

```none
title:"director" && startDate<'2020-01-01'
```

This query will find all ChartHop users in the organization with "director" somewhere in their job title and who started working before the date of January 1st, 2020. In this case, the query uses the `title`*&#x20;field*, the `:` *operator&#x20;*&#x77;hich functions as a *Fuzzy search,* and the *value&#x20;*`director` as the first half of the query. Then, followed by the `&&`(AND)*&#x20;operator&#x20;*&#x74;he query includes the `startDate` *field*, followed by the LESS THAN *operator*, and then the *value* `'2020-01-01'`

Dive deeper into Carrot's structure in our [Key Concepts](docId\:EVS2nDSHVsn-6-9fLx7vc) article.

### Some Carrot examples

The below examples illustrate how you might use Carrot when creating filters, queries, custom fields, and more.

| **Example**                       | **Searches for**                                           |
| --------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| `title:director`                  | Everyone with "director" somewhere in their title.         |
| `title="Director of Engineering"` | The exact title "Director of Engineering".                 |
| `startDate<'2020-01-01'`          | Everyone who started before the date January 1st 2020.     |
| `is:manager`                      | All people managers.                                       |
| `!department:sales,marketing`     | Everyone who is not in the Sales or Marketing departments. |
| `is:open daysOpen>90`             | Open jobs that have been open for more than 90 days.       |

## Data access and security

All data access in Carrot is permission controlled, according to ChartHop [Access Levels](https://docs.charthop.com/user-roles-and-permissions), and so query results may vary between users depending on their level of permissions.