Best way to check if a field exist in an Elasticsearch document

Question

What is the best way to check if a field of a document in elasticsearch exists? I can't find anything in the documentation.

For example if this document doesn't have the field/key "price" I don't want to return in the result.

{
    "updated": "2015/09/17 11:27:27",
     "name": "Eye Shadow",
     "format": "1.5 g / 0.05 oz",
}

What I can do?

Val · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-13T11:00:55.567

74

You can use the exists filter combined with a bool/must filter like this:

{
  "query": {
    "filtered": {
      "filter": {
        "bool": {
          "must": [
            {
              "exists": {
                "field": "price"
              }
            },
            ...     <-- your other constraints, if any
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

DEPRECATED (since ES5) You can also use the missing filter combined with a bool/must_not filter:

{
  "query": {
    "filtered": {
      "filter": {
        "bool": {
          "must_not": [
            {
              "missing": {
                "field": "price"
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

edited Feb 13 '19 at 11:00

answered Oct 05 '15 at 13:07

Val

207,596
13
358
360

But exists is not like IS NULL of SQL? if doesn't check the "field" it checks the value of the field. Perhaps I have missunderstood the docs. @Val – Ekaitz Hernandez Troyas Oct 05 '15 at 13:13
If your document doesn't have a `price` field, then it cannot have a `price` value either, so the document without `price` field will not be matched. – Val Oct 05 '15 at 13:26
Val yes I could do it, It was a problem with my data and as well I wasmissunderstanding the documentation. It's working. Thanks @Val. – Ekaitz Hernandez Troyas Oct 14 '15 at 10:25
this is now deprecated. please check @Devi's answer – Dexter May 07 '17 at 15:26
1

@Dexter `missing` is deprecated, but not `exists` – Val May 07 '17 at 17:13

score 27 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 26 '16 at 21:48

The exists filter has been replaced by exists query from ES 2.1, though the working of it is the same. Also, the missing filter is removed and missing query deprecated.

To get all docs which have a particular field,

"bool": {
    "must": {
        "exists": {
            "field": "my_field"
        }
    }
}

and to get all docs which does NOT have a particular field, use it with must_not like this

"bool": {
    "must_not": {
        "exists": {
            "field": "my_field"
        }
    }
}

Elastic docs: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/2.3/query-dsl-missing-query.html

score 23 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 21 '17 at 11:50

You can directly do

{
    "query": {
        "exists": {
            "field": "fieldName"
        }
    }
}

If you wanna add some match too, then you can go for

{
    "query": {
        "bool": {
            "must": [{
                "match": {
                    "fieldName": "value"
                }
            },
            {
                "exists": {
                    "field": "fieldName"
                }
            }]
        }
    }
}

https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-exists-query.html

score 9 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 05 '15 at 13:15

9

You can use exists filter:

{
  "query": {
    "filtered": {
      "filter": {
        "exists": {
          "field": "status"
        }
      },
      "query": {
        "match_all": {}
      }
    }
  }
}

Regards, Alain

answered Oct 05 '15 at 13:15

adouang

374
2
8

score 8 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 10 '18 at 23:06

8

GET /_search
{
    "query": {
        "exists" : { "field" : "price" }
    }
}

source: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-exists-query.html

answered Aug 10 '18 at 23:06

Thiago Falcao

4,463
39
34

this is the right one for the latest 7.16 version – dtc Jan 03 '22 at 22:29

Best way to check if a field exist in an Elasticsearch document

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