# Possible error in system.tag.query documentation (8.1.19)

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/possible-error-in-system-tag-query-documentation-8-1-19/62496>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** ignition81, scripting\
**Created:** [July 30, 2022, 2:01am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/possible-error-in-system-tag-query-documentation-8-1-19/62496 "2022-07-30T02:01:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![thecesrom.git](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@thecesrom.git](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/thecesrom.git)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2022, 2:01am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/possible-error-in-system-tag-query-documentation-8-1-19/62496/1 "2022-07-30T02:01:05Z")

</div>

Hello IA,

While learning about `system.tag.query` I found a possible error in the docstring.

I copied this from the pop-up

```auto
Parameters
provider: String 
Name of the tag provider to query.
query: PyObject 
A dictionary of query parameters.
limit: Integer 
Maximum size of the result set.
continuation: String 
Sets the continuation point in order to continue a query that was previously started and then limited.

```

But when I run the following code, nothing is returned:

```python
provider = "TagProvider"
continuation = "sometag"
 system.tag.query(provider, continuation=continuation) 
>>> 
[]

```

Compared to:

```python
provider = "TagProvider"
continuation = "sometag"
 system.tag.query(provider, continuationPoint=continuation) 
>>> 
[{u'fullPath': [TagProvider]Path/To/TagWithError, u'formatString': u'#,##0.##', u'hasChildren': False, u'dataType': Boolean, u'quality': Error_Configuration("Server "Ignition OPC-UA Server" does not exist."), u'name': u'TagWithError', u'tagType': AtomicTag, u'attributes': [alarm], u'valueSource': u'opc', u'value': [null, Error_Configuration("Server "Ignition OPC-UA Server" does not exist."), Fri Jul 29 15:58:06 PDT 2022 (1659135486177)]}, ...}]
>>> 

```

Also, in the docs you don’t seem to agree with yourselves between the signature and the argument name, as well as the Type.

In the docs you say `continuation` is of type `Integer` while the docstring in the Designer it says `String`.

**system.tag.query(provider, query, [limit], [continuationPoint])**

- Parameters
  - Integer continuation- The Tag ID of a previously returned continuation point, to continue the associated query from that point [optional]

Which is it?  
a. continuationPoint String  
b. continuationPoint Integer  
c. continuation String  
d. continuation Integer

Thanks.

See:

[https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC81/system.tag.query](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC81/system.tag.query)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![thecesrom.git](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@thecesrom.git](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/thecesrom.git)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2022, 4:03pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/possible-error-in-system-tag-query-documentation-8-1-19/62496/2 "2022-08-01T16:03:16Z")

</div>

And the return type (Dataset) may also be wrong.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![thecesrom.git](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@thecesrom.git](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/thecesrom.git)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2022, 11:08pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/possible-error-in-system-tag-query-documentation-8-1-19/62496/3 "2022-08-01T23:08:48Z")

</div>

Last thing I’ll say is that the function lacks sanitization, and the Code Snippet is just bad.

The code snippet should at least produce the expected output:

```python
for result in results:
    print str(result) # not `results`

```

And on sanitization. The following code will return all tags under the Tag Provider:

```python
provider = "Sample_Tags"

# The Tag Provider is the only required argument, but I can pass any other
# three kwargs and it will still work
results = system.tag.query(provider, testing=True, bad=True, code="i can just pass any kwarg here and it will still work")

for result in results:
    print str(result)

```

Is there someone from IA in this forum that could look into this?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Paul.Scott](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul.scott/32/4578_2.png) [@Paul.Scott](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Paul.Scott)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 12:20am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/possible-error-in-system-tag-query-documentation-8-1-19/62496/4 "2022-08-02T00:20:07Z")

</div>

> [@thecesrom.git](#):
>
> Is there someone from IA in this forum that could look into this?

Can do! I think you discovered why documenting things as they're being developed can be tricky. We'll take a look.

Side note, there's an email address listed on the footer of the docs site ([docs@inductiveautomation.com](mailto:docs@inductiveautomation.com)). Any future issues with the documentation should go there.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![thecesrom.git](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@thecesrom.git](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/thecesrom.git)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 12:39am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/possible-error-in-system-tag-query-documentation-8-1-19/62496/5 "2022-08-02T00:39:24Z")

</div>

Thanks, @Paul.Scott!

Looking forward to the corrected version, and I’ll surely send my findings to that email address.

My main goal here is to keep [`ignition-api@8.1`](https://github.com/ignition-api/8.1) and [`ignition-api-stubs`](https://github.com/ignition-api/stubs) as functional, and accurate as possible.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ggross](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/ggross/32/12668_2.png) [@ggross](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/ggross)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 2:41am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/possible-error-in-system-tag-query-documentation-8-1-19/62496/6 "2022-08-02T02:41:55Z")

</div>

Here are the answers to some of the questions you have in general:

> [@thecesrom.git](#):
>
> And the return type (Dataset) may also be wrong.

This function returns the same object as [system.tag.browse](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC81/system.tag.browse):

- Returns  
Results - A Results object which contains a list of Tag dictionaries, one for each Tag found during the browse. See [Scripting Object Reference](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC81/Scripting+Object+Reference).

> [@](#):
>
> In the docs you say `continuation` is of type `Integer` while the docstring in the Designer it says `String` .

The documentation in the designer is correct. `continuation` is going to be a string value that is a system generated UUID that is returned when the `limit` parameter is used. It would be used like the following:

```python
results = system.tag.query(provider='default', limit=10)
for result in results:
    print(results) # 1st 10 results
results = system.tag.query(continuation=results.continuationPoint)
for result in results:
    print(results) # next 10 results

```

The same continuation point is returned each time until the results are exhausted.

Your use of the `continuationPoint` kwarg and results being returned was due to the other issue you noted where unrecognized keywords are just thrown away. That is bug that our dev team should resolve.

Garth

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![thecesrom.git](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@thecesrom.git](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/thecesrom.git)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 3:09am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/possible-error-in-system-tag-query-documentation-8-1-19/62496/7 "2022-08-02T03:09:01Z")

</div>

Thanks, @ggross!