# Basic Query Question JSON Formatting

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/basic-query-question-json-formatting/170779>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [March 4, 2019, 7:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/basic-query-question-json-formatting/170779 "2019-03-04T19:10:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Vincent\_Stevenson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/vincent_stevenson/32/48477_2.png) [@Vincent\_Stevenson](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Vincent_Stevenson)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 7:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/basic-query-question-json-formatting/170779/1 "2019-03-04T19:10:25Z")

</div>

I don't know the proper way to format JSON requests to search all indices in ES. When I run:  
GET \_search?q=dog&size=0  
I get 270 hits, but when I run:  
GET \_search  
{  
"query": {  
"match": {  
"about" :"dog"  
}  
}  
}

I get no hits. What is the correct way to make this query return the number of hits?

Thanks

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 7:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/basic-query-question-json-formatting/170779/2 "2019-03-04T19:24:54Z")

</div>

Using `?q=dog` is behind the scene generating a [query string query](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-query-string-query.html) not a match query.

So it should be:

```auto
GET /_search
{
    "size": 0,
    "query": {
        "query_string" : {
            "query" : "dog"
        }
    }
}

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Vincent\_Stevenson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/vincent_stevenson/32/48477_2.png) [@Vincent\_Stevenson](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Vincent_Stevenson)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 7:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/basic-query-question-json-formatting/170779/3 "2019-03-04T19:35:38Z")

</div>

Thank you!

If I would like to get a breakdown on the hit count for each index (the number of documents containing 'dog' in each index), how could I nest an aggregation to do this?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 7:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/basic-query-question-json-formatting/170779/4 "2019-03-04T19:37:06Z")

</div>

Probably a terms agg on `_index` field might work.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2019, 7:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/basic-query-question-json-formatting/170779/5 "2019-04-01T19:37:09Z")

</div>

Closed on April 1, 2019, 7:37pm UTC

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