# Any interest in an Elasticsearch query language (EQL)?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/any-interest-in-an-elasticsearch-query-language-eql/2132
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [June 8, 2015, 12:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/any-interest-in-an-elasticsearch-query-language-eql/2132 "2015-06-08T12:34:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@metadave](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/metadave)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2015, 12:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/any-interest-in-an-elasticsearch-query-language-eql/2132/1 "2015-06-08T12:34:05Z")
Hello -
I spent a few hours getting a prototype of an Elasticsearch query language (dubbed "eql") up and running [0]. I'm posting here to see if there is any interest at all in a project like this.
Here are some examples that I have working:
```
query bank return 3 sort on balance asc, lastname desc;
query bank (balance, age, account_number)
filter
balance = 1110
and (age = 31 or account_number=953)
return 1;
index blogposts with post = '{"xyz":"this is a test", "foobar":100}';
get blogposts with post = "AU3Po0OOZX4PYDrqsDN1";
```
The github repo has a few animated gifs that demo eql running. If anyone has an interest in language design, I'd love to kick around some ideas on a full query language for Elasticsearch.
Cheers -
Dave
[0] [https://github.com/metadave/eql](https://github.com/metadave/eql)
---
### Author:  [@jprante](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jprante)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2015, 3:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/any-interest-in-an-elasticsearch-query-language-eql/2132/2 "2015-06-08T15:28:07Z")
Cool!
Looks like this is for working from a remote command line console?
I'm interested in these points:
- the language parser should also be implemented as a plugin so it can be used over HTTP.
- the "query"/"get" part should be addressable by a separate end point than the administrative commands so it can be used safely without the risk of modifying/deleting data ("read only mode")
- reuse of query results in subsequent queries (assigning results to variables probably)
- presenting results in CSV, JSON arrays, or XML, like in my plugins [https://github.com/jprante/elasticsearch-xml](https://github.com/jprante/elasticsearch-xml) or [https://github.com/jprante/elasticsearch-arrayformat](https://github.com/jprante/elasticsearch-arrayformat)
---
### Author:  [@metadave](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/metadave)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2015, 3:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/any-interest-in-an-elasticsearch-query-language-eql/2132/3 "2015-06-08T15:48:16Z")
Thanks for the reply, Jörg.
The console exists in the EQL repo (using JLine), but the main Antlr4 parser could be packaged via Maven separately. I used a similar approach on a parser at work, and it allows me to try out the library via command line/script.
Regarding your points (and apologies for the awkward inline format below):
- the language parser should also be implemented as a plugin so it can be used over HTTP.
no problem here, it boils down to a Java Maven dependency to evaluate a query.
- the "query"/"get" part should be addressable by a separate end point than the administrative commands so it can be used safely without the risk of modifying/deleting data ("read only mode")
Agreed, but I wonder if something like:
```
connect readonly foo:9300;
```
might look nicer to a user. In a previous parser, I made a database connection optional for each query command for exactly this reason.
- reuse of query results in subsequent queries (assigning results to variables probably)
This is doable, but not in my prototype at the moment.
- presenting results in CSV, JSON arrays, or XML, like in my plugins [https://github.com/jprante/elasticsearch-xml](https://github.com/jprante/elasticsearch-xml) or [https://github.com/jprante/elasticsearch-arrayformat](https://github.com/jprante/elasticsearch-arrayformat)
Excellent idea, I'll take a look at your plugins (woot Apache 2 license!)
Cheers -
Dave
---
### Author:  [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2015, 2:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/any-interest-in-an-elasticsearch-query-language-eql/2132/4 "2015-06-09T02:20:19Z")
Very nice idea!
---
### Author:  [@otisg](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/otisg)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2015, 1:56am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/any-interest-in-an-elasticsearch-query-language-eql/2132/5 "2015-06-10T01:56:41Z")
Hi,
Interesting. We have an SQL layer on top of ES, though it's not on Github (yet?).
Does eql imply having to learn a new language structure?
## Otis
Monitoring \* Alerting \* Anomaly Detection \* Centralized Log Management
Solr & Elasticsearch Support \* [http://sematext.com/](http://sematext.com/)
---
### Author:  [@metadave](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/metadave)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2015, 3:06am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/any-interest-in-an-elasticsearch-query-language-eql/2132/6 "2015-06-10T03:06:59Z")
> Does eql imply having to learn a new language structure?
Yes. It's specifically designed to _not_ look like SQL. I worked at a nosql database company in the past, and mapping SQL to non-sql data stores was awkward. The tradeoff is/was to make a language that sounds as natural as possible.
Cheers -
Dave
---
### Author:  [@jprante](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jprante)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2015, 7:00am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/any-interest-in-an-elasticsearch-query-language-eql/2132/7 "2015-06-10T07:00:48Z")
+1 for not using SQL.
Even for RDBMS, SQL is flawed, inconsistent, not easy to use. The "Cobol of the relational world".
For non-sql data, there is no standard, but maybe something will silently evolve - the community decides what will stand the test of time.
---
### Author:  [@lukas\_vlcek](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/lukas_vlcek)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2015, 10:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/any-interest-in-an-elasticsearch-query-language-eql/2132/8 "2015-06-10T10:20:40Z")
Hi Dave,
nice! Are there any EQL examples that would be equal to more complicated ES queries? Like nested aggregations? Filtered query with non-trivial query and filter parts? I would like to get an idea of how this would look like - did not find anything like this in your repo.
Regards,
Lukas
---
### Author:  [@metadave](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/metadave)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2015, 3:11pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/any-interest-in-an-elasticsearch-query-language-eql/2132/9 "2015-06-12T15:11:30Z")
Hello Lukas -
Since it's only a prototype, the examples in the repo are all I have at the moment. Do you have any example queries in mind that are more complex that I could model after?
Thanks for taking a look!
Dave
---
### Author:  [@metadave](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/metadave)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/any-interest-in-an-elasticsearch-query-language-eql/2132/10 "2015-06-13T01:34:45Z")
Actually, I see some examples in the docs. I'll kick those around a bit and see what I can come up with.
Have a great weekend -
Dave
---
### Author:  [@metadave](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/metadave)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2015, 2:18pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/any-interest-in-an-elasticsearch-query-language-eql/2132/11 "2015-06-14T14:18:54Z")
Ok, here's what _simple_ aggregates look like:
```
query bank
aggregate min_bal = min(balance), max_bal = max(balance);
(truncated results)
"aggregations" : {
"max_bal" : {
"value" : 49989.0
},
"min_bal" : {
"value" : 1011.0
}
}
// filter + aggregation
query bank
filter age = 20
aggregate foo = min(balance), bar = max(balance);
(truncated results)
"aggregations" : {
"foo" : {
"value" : 1650.0
},
"bar" : {
"value" : 49568.0
}
}
```
I'll keep chugging ahead and implement other pieces, time permitting. I won't post progress on this thread, but I'll keep the README updated with new statements here: [https://github.com/metadave/eql](https://github.com/metadave/eql)
Cheers -
Dave
---
### Author:  [@PatrickKik](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/PatrickKik)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2015, 5:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/any-interest-in-an-elasticsearch-query-language-eql/2132/12 "2015-07-29T05:20:39Z")
I like the idea. Good luck!
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 11:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/any-interest-in-an-elasticsearch-query-language-eql/2132/13 "2017-07-05T23:58:28Z")