Dataview to Bases

Convert Dataview queries into Bases blocks, and see which queries in your vault can be converted. A migration helper for people moving off Dataview, which has had no release in over a year, to the Bases core feature.

It also moves Dataview inline fields (status:: done) into properties, so Bases can see them.

It converts the common queries (TABLE, LIST, FROM, WHERE, SORT, LIMIT, GROUP BY) and tells you plainly why it leaves the rest alone. It never converts anything on its own, and the vault scan never edits a note.

Commands

Each conversion is one change in the editor, so a single Undo brings every query back. By default the original query stays under the new block inside a comment (hidden in reading view; its tags and links do not count for the note). Turn that off in the settings.

Moving inline fields to properties

Bases reads only properties, so a query on status:: done written in the text shows nothing for that note. The move commands turn inline fields into properties:

• A field on a line of its own (status:: done) and a field inside a sentence ([due:: 2026-10-10] or (rating:: 4)) are both found. Code blocks, inline code, math, comments and the front matter are skipped. A field in a list item or a quote is moved only when it is in brackets.
• The key is kept as you wrote it when it is a valid property name (Status, due_date, año). Otherwise it is written the way Dataview reads it: lowercase, spaces as hyphens (Due Date becomes due-date).
• Values get a type: numbers, true and false, dates and date-times (2026-10-10, 2026-10-10T09:30) and links ([[Some note]], kept as a link in the property). A value of several links separated by commas becomes a list. tags, aliases and cssclasses become lists. Anything else stays text, exactly as written.
• A key that appears more than once in a note becomes one list property.
• A property the note already has is never overwritten. If its value is different, the field is reported as a conflict and stays in the text; if it is the same, the field is just dropped. A field with no value is skipped.
• With the setting Remove the fields from the text (on by default), fields on a line of their own are taken out of the text. Fields inside a sentence are prose, so they always stay and are only copied.

The vault command shows a preview first: each note, the fields found, the property each becomes and the conflicts, with a checkbox per note. Nothing changes until you press the button. Undo the last move of inline fields puts back every note of the last move; a note you edited after the move is left as it is.

Example

```dataview
TABLE rating AS "Stars" FROM "Books" WHERE rating >= 4 SORT rating DESC LIMIT 10
```

becomes

```base
filters:
  and:
    - 'file.inFolder("Books")'
    - 'note.rating >= 4'
properties:
  file.name:
    displayName: File
  note.rating:
    displayName: Stars
views:
  - type: table
    name: Table
    limit: 10
    sort:
      - property: note.rating
        direction: DESC
    order:
      - file.name
      - note.rating
```

What converts

• TABLE (with AS aliases and WITHOUT ID) becomes a table view; LIST becomes a list view.
• FROM with folders, files, #tags, [[links]] (notes that link to it), [[]] (notes that link to this one), and and, or, -/! and parentheses.
• WHERE with comparisons, and/or/!, = null, dates (date(today), dur(7 days)) and the common functions: contains, icontains, lower, length, default, choice, startswith, endswith, replace, split, join, round, floor, ceil, abs, min, max, dateformat, striptime, number, link and a few more.
• SORT with several keys, LIMIT with a number, GROUP BY one field.
• file.name, file.link, file.path, file.folder, file.ext, file.size, file.ctime, file.mtime, file.cday, file.mday, file.tags, file.outlinks, file.inlinks and this.file.*.
• Columns that are not plain properties become formulas, named after what they were.

What does not convert

Left unchanged, with the reason in the notice or the report:

• TASK and CALENDAR queries, dataviewjs blocks and inline = … queries.
• FLATTEN, and FROM outgoing(…) or csv(…) sources.
• Functions Bases has no equivalent for, such as upper, sum, regexmatch, map and filter; file.tasks, file.lists, file.day, file.starred.

Differences you should check

A query is reported as partly convertible when the result may not match Dataview. The notice and the report say which of these applies:

• Inline fields. Bases reads only properties in the frontmatter. If a field the query uses is written inline somewhere in your vault (status:: done, [due:: 2026-10-10]), the query is reported as partly, because the converted table would be empty or wrong for those notes. Move the field into the frontmatter, or keep Dataview for that query.
• contains() on a property. On a list property, Dataview also matches part of an item (contains(authors, "Smi") finds "Smith"), while Bases matches whole items only. econtains converts exactly.
• GROUP BY. Dataview shows one row per group; Bases lists every note under its group heading.
• this.field. Properties of the current page are mapped to this.note.field; check the result.
• Property spelling. Dataview matches Due Date as due-date. Bases uses the property name exactly as written in the query, so names with a hyphen or a space are reported as partly and converted to a formula that reads the name as written.
• Clause order. Dataview runs LIMIT where you wrote it (LIMIT 10 SORT x sorts only ten notes); Bases always filters, sorts, then limits.

Translated without a warning: x = null stays x == null (so 0, false and an empty text are values, as in Dataview), default(x, y) only replaces a missing value, contains(file.tags, "#x") becomes file.hasTag("x"), and dateformat() formats are translated to the common Bases ones (unusual tokens are reported as not convertible).

The converted block is what Bases reads, so you can edit it after converting, and Bases shows the result right away in the note.

Settings

Notes

• Needs a version of Obsidian with Bases (1.10 for the list view). The plugin only writes text; it does not need Dataview installed.
• No network use, no data leaves your vault.

Installation

In Obsidian, open Settings → Community plugins → Browse and search for "Dataview to Bases".

More plugins by Siulved54

All of them are in the community directory: Settings -> Community plugins -> Browse, then search for the name.