How to use the Obsidian Dataview plugin

Published 2022-04-13
What even IS Obsidian Dataview? Dataview has quickly become one of the most popular plugins for Obsidian, but how do you actually use it? Whether you're a non-programmer or an expert coder, here's how to use the Obsidian Dataview plugin and some common use cases for it.

Obsidian Dataview docs: blacksmithgu.github.io/obsidian-dataview/

// TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro
0:43 Dataview installation and setup
1:49 Step 1 - Annotate notes
3:29 Step 2 - Querying notes
5:07 Lists in Dataview
6:48 Tables in Dataview
12:46 Tasks in Dataview
14:14 Calendars in Dataview

If you want to learn more about Obsidian, check out my course for beginners, Obsidian for Everyone: courses.nicolevanderhoeven.com/o4e

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All Comments (21)
  • @hdubbs9174
    YES! Thank you for being the first person to explain dataview in a video that is not an hour long! Yet you covered all of the basic functions. <3
  • @kgeusens
    This is sharp, concise, to the point, and cuts all the redundant non-informative "info". Instead of pressing the fast-forward button to find some parts of interest (and often being disappointed that there is none), I found myself pressing pause and rewind to absorb it all. Love your style!!!!
  • @nicolevdh
    Hey folks! The themes I used in this video is are Everforest (dark mode one) and Primary (light mode) with no custom CSS. :)
  • @timwilkes9741
    This was fantastic. New to Obsidian and Dataview sounds amazing. Thanks for a concise, useful explanation of the main features!
  • @stoicfloor
    I was struggling with dataview yesterday and I know this video is going to help me tremendously when I watch it tonight. Thank you so much Nicole!
  • @krismadaus4305
    This is the best dataview explanation for beginners that I've seen. The examples you provided are perfect, starting from very basic and then building on that. Thank you!
  • @keomplays
    Hello fellow PTYA'er! I have been bingeing your Obsidian videos all day. You're a great teacher. These videos are so clear and succinct. It's making my move from Roam to Obsidian painless. TY
  • @AiguretDuren
    Your videos make my brain swim in a good way! I was looking at dataview yesterday for aggregating my planned encounters in D&D 5e. I think I was using it wrong, trying to aggregate content blocks of encounters (1 to many in a single file). Watching this video, it seems like dataview would work way better if I made a file per encounter. This would actually make my module vault cleaner, as I would likely put those planned encounters in an Encounters folder at the top and transclude where needed, allowing me to better structure their data.
  • @wfh768
    Hi, I'm new to Obsidian and I've come across to your channel. Your videos on Obsidian are really helpful for me as a beginner. It's a step by step, crystal clear explanation on process & progress for me as a beginner. It really is useful as I find other videos kind of overwhelming for me. I'm like, doing a marathon, watching your videos, and then watching it again while toggled on the Obsidian. I'll binged watch all your videos other than Obsidian. I'm a new fan of yours. Thank you for the informative videos 😊
  • @archangel4131
    Really respect and appreciate people like yourself who give their ti and expert knowledge so others can benefit and enjoy soft
  • The distinction between hoarding data and learning from it (at timestamp 15:35) was just brilliant. Thank you!
  • @eligray9764
    You are a very gifted teacher. I've been teacNice tutorialng soft for over 50 years and really appreciate your video being a beginner in soft soft.
  • @davidbrohede
    Thank you for another great video Nicole! I see you navigating Obsidian using keyboard shortcuts - I would love to learn that as well. Could you please take that as a subject for a future video? 😊 - how to bring up the switcher, and how to create new notes and folders by simply writing the title -how to view notes flexibly side by side - how to get around in Obsidian using just keystrokes. Would love such a video - thank you again! 🙌
  • @brucecampney465
    This helped improve my understanding of DataView, I now have several ideas to go try out.
  • @Jaszunai
    The Dataview plugin is great, I can't imagine using Obsidian without it. Honestly, I wish it was part of core Obsidian as getting the most out of it requires all your files to have the appropriate metadata, and it can take a lot of work to go back and update all your notes.
  • @lm2jag
    Love the video. Like everyone's been saying, dataview looked helpful, but I couldn't wrap my head around how to get started. Great job on mahjong this so simple. I've watched once already, and I'll be gong through it again when I get home tonight 🙃
  • @juanv4939
    omg, i was gonna ask u to do a tutorial on this plugin 😭 Thanks so much ! Love your work sm 💕
  • @rodwaynick
    This is exatcly how I'm building out my note taking system! Seeing this video a few days ago would have saved me HOURS of thinking.
  • @daniellakhomuz
    Thank you so much! I am at the start of my PhD and I'm so excited to use dataview. I was struggling to figure out how to use it but this was super helpful!
  • I've been snooping on your channel and I just want to say thanks so much for your very clear videos :)