# Counting parents in a parent child relationship
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/counting-parents-in-a-parent-child-relationship/9046
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [September 17, 2012, 8:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/counting-parents-in-a-parent-child-relationship/9046 "2012-09-17T20:58:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Todd\_Gruben](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Todd_Gruben)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 8:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/counting-parents-in-a-parent-child-relationship/9046/1 "2012-09-17T20:58:41Z")
I am attempting to count profiles based on the has\_child filter but I am
not getting the desired results. If I execute the query against the search
api, I get the correct list of documents, but If i execute against the
count api, I get 0.
My end goal is to count profiles which have certain attributes(like male)
and has a child document that matches a certain tag. That should be
possible correct?
>
Thanks for a really cool product
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### Author:  [@mvg](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mvg)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2012, 9:14am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/counting-parents-in-a-parent-child-relationship/9046/2 "2012-09-18T09:14:37Z")
Hi Todd,
Executing the has\_child query (and also top\_children query) on the
count api has known problems.
The workaround for this problem is the use the search api with the
search type 'count':
> **[Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale](https://www.elastic.co)**
>
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In general it is recommended to use the search api with search type
count over the count api for counting hits.
Martijn
On 17 September 2012 22:58, Todd Gruben [tgruben@gmail.com](mailto:tgruben@gmail.com) wrote:
> I am attempting to count profiles based on the has\_child filter but I am not
> getting the desired results. If I execute the query against the search api,
> I get the correct list of documents, but If i execute against the count api,
> I get 0.
>
> My end goal is to count profiles which have certain attributes(like male)
> and has a child document that matches a certain tag. That should be
> possible correct?
>
> [Issue with Parent Child counting · GitHub](https://gist.github.com/3739692)
>
> Thanks for a really cool product
>
> --
--
Met vriendelijke groet,
Martijn van Groningen
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 3:12am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/counting-parents-in-a-parent-child-relationship/9046/3 "2017-07-06T03:12:31Z")