# Creating a NOT EQUAL filter in Java Fluent API
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/creating-a-not-equal-filter-in-java-fluent-api/309859
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [July 18, 2022, 8:32am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/creating-a-not-equal-filter-in-java-fluent-api/309859 "2022-07-18T08:32:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@bweston](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bweston)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2022, 8:32am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/creating-a-not-equal-filter-in-java-fluent-api/309859/1 "2022-07-18T08:32:16Z")
Hi,
I'm trying to compose a NOT EQUAL filter with the new Java Fluent API, querying Elastic 8.2 and have drawn a blank. The query below returns all documents that have expired according to our company retention policy, together with a few other criteria.
For efficiency, I want to turn the mustNot(beInTrash) part of the bool query into a filter query, essentially stating that the document shouldn't be in a folder starting with a certain prefix, however I'm not sure of the syntax. The other filters are pretty straightforward as they operate on boolean or discrete values.
Thanks in advance.
Blake
```auto
...
var expiredItemsQuery = BoolQuery.of(b -> b
.filter(isAnExpiredItem())
.filter(isNotDeleted())
.filter(isNotSuspended())
.filter(isAFile())
.mustNot(beInTrash())
)._toQuery();
...
protected Query beInTrash() {
return PrefixQuery.of(p -> p
.field("path.keyword")
.value("Trash/")
)._toQuery();
}
protected Query isNotDeleted() {
return TermQuery.of(t -> t
.field("is_deleted")
.value(false)
)._toQuery();
}
```
---
### Author:  [@RabBit\_BR](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/RabBit_BR)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2022, 12:44pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/creating-a-not-equal-filter-in-java-fluent-api/309859/2 "2022-07-18T12:44:02Z")
Hi @bweston
how you use the "path.keyword" will exclude only the docs that have this path "Trash/". Docs with path "Trash/folderXpto" would remain in your results.
That's the problem?
---
### Author:  [@bweston](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bweston)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 6:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/creating-a-not-equal-filter-in-java-fluent-api/309859/3 "2022-07-19T06:44:33Z")
Not quite. It's a PrefixQuery. Therefore any documents with a prefix of Trash/ for the path will be excluded. That works just fine. It excludes what I need it to exclude, including folders Trash/123 and Trash/xyz. The issue isn't with the logic, it's more of a performance thing.
I am using the results of this query in an aggregation and therefore I don't care about scoring and as per the Elastic recommendations, I want to turn it into a filter, rather than the must not query it is at the moment.
---
### Author:  [@RabBit\_BR](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/RabBit_BR)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 12:13pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/creating-a-not-equal-filter-in-java-fluent-api/309859/4 "2022-07-19T12:13:39Z")
De acordo com a documentação vc já esta usando o filtro.
> `must_not` The clause (query) must not appear in the matching documents. Clauses are executed in [filter context](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-filter-context.html) meaning that scoring is ignored and clauses are considered for caching. Because scoring is ignored, a score of `0` for all documents is returned.
---
### Author:  [@bweston](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bweston)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 12:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/creating-a-not-equal-filter-in-java-fluent-api/309859/5 "2022-07-19T12:29:37Z")
You learn something new every day. I didn't realise must\_not was executed in the filter context. I had assumed that it was only executed as a filter if it was wrapped by a filter construct. Therefore my code can stay as-is.
Thanks for your help.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2022, 12:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/creating-a-not-equal-filter-in-java-fluent-api/309859/6 "2022-08-16T12:29:54Z")
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