Component Tag expressions

You can use expressions to search the Component Tags table or the Deformer Attributes Widget.
Operators
Use the following operators to provide boolean and order of evaluation operations:
Symbol Meaning
'+' (plus) Union: performs a boolean union operation on componentTags.
'-' (minus) Subtract: performs a boolean difference operation on componentTags.
'^' (circumflex) Intersection: performs a boolean exclusion. For example, *^tagGroup includes only items in componentTag "tagGroup".
':' (colon) Dot operator: lets you work with namespace sets, for example, shirt:sleeve works.
Note: You cannot have colons at the start or end of a name, nor can you use multiple instances, for example shirt::sleeve.
'.' (period) Dot operator: lets you work with namespace sets, for example, shirt.sleeve works.
Note: You cannot have periods at the start or end of a name, nor can you use multiple instances, for example shirt..sleeve.
'(' ')' (parentheses) Operator: lets you specify the priority of items contained within the namespace set, for example clothes - (jacket + vest).
You can use more than one ':' or '.' symbol in a name, but not in sequence, for example, you can have clothes.shirt.sleeve, but a repeated symbol, like shirt..sleeve does not work.
Tip: Use ',' (comma) to separate tags.
Wildcards
Use the following wildcards to match against componentTag names.
Symbol Meaning
* (asterisk) Matches against any number of characters.
ap* (first letters of name, followed by an asterisk) Limits the wildcard to specific characters of partial names

For example, you could use ap* to match both "apples" and "apricots" and would basically result in "apples + apricots".

Functions
Use the following functions to cast componentTags of one type to another.
Symbol Meaning
v() Casts the member components to vertices.
e() Casts the member components to edges.
f(f) Casts the member components to faces.
Evaluation Queries
Component Tag expressions can be passed to the geomAttrInfo command to query the resolved list of components.

For example:

polyCylinder -sx 20 -sy 4 -sz 4;
geometryAttrInfo -cmp  -cex "bottom+cylSides" pCylinder1.outMesh;
// Result: vtx[0:159] vtx[220] // 
Naming Syntax
You can use the following characters in Component Tags to work with managing complex groups.
Note: A name cannot start with a number. For example, 9shirt is not allowed.
Symbol Meaning
':' (colon) Lets you work with namespace sets, for example, shirt:sleeve works.
Note: You cannot have colons at the start or end of a name, nor can you use multiple instances in sequence, for example shirt::sleeve
.
'.' (period) Lets you work with namespace sets, for example, shirt.sleeve works.

You cannot have periods at the start or end of a name, nor can you use multiple instances, for example shirt..sleeve .

You can use more than one ':' or '.' in a name, but you can't use them in sequence. For example, you can have clothes.shirt.sleeve, but not shirt..sleeve.
Tip: Use ',' (comma) to separate tags.