# DateHistogramAggregation with Composite sub-aggregation
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/datehistogramaggregation-with-composite-sub-aggregation/232751
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [May 15, 2020, 4:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/datehistogramaggregation-with-composite-sub-aggregation/232751 "2020-05-15T04:46:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@plm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/plm)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2020, 4:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/datehistogramaggregation-with-composite-sub-aggregation/232751/1 "2020-05-15T04:46:20Z")
Hi,
I got the following exception when trying to execute a DateHistogramAggregation with a sub-aggregation of type CompositeAggregation. Any reason why this wouldn't be supported? Also would this be supported with a regular HistogramAggregation? I am using Elasticsearch version 7.7.0. I was also surprised to not get an exception during client validation phase prior to the query actually being executed.
Thanks,
Philippe
```auto
ElasticsearchException[Elasticsearch exception [type=search_phase_execution_exception, reason=all shards failed]]; nested: ElasticsearchException[Elasticsearch exception [type=illegal_argument_exception, reason=[composite] aggregation cannot be used with a parent aggregation of type: [DateHistogramAggregatorFactory]]]; nested: ElasticsearchException[Elasticsearch exception [type=illegal_argument_exception, reason=[composite] aggregation cannot be used with a parent aggregation of type: [DateHistogramAggregatorFactory]]];
at org.elasticsearch.ElasticsearchException.innerFromXContent(ElasticsearchException.java:496)
at org.elasticsearch.ElasticsearchException.failureFromXContent(ElasticsearchException.java:603)
at org.elasticsearch.action.search.MultiSearchResponse.itemFromXContent(MultiSearchResponse.java:215)
at org.elasticsearch.action.search.MultiSearchResponse.lambda$static$1(MultiSearchResponse.java:56)
at org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.AbstractObjectParser.lambda$declareObjectArray$7(AbstractObjectParser.java:183)
at org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.AbstractObjectParser.lambda$declareFieldArray$13(AbstractObjectParser.java:211)
at org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.AbstractObjectParser.parseArray(AbstractObjectParser.java:229)
at org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.AbstractObjectParser.lambda$declareFieldArray$14(AbstractObjectParser.java:211)
at org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.ObjectParser.lambda$declareField$4(ObjectParser.java:283)
at org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.ObjectParser.parseValue(ObjectParser.java:384)
at org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.ObjectParser.parseArray(ObjectParser.java:378)
at org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.ObjectParser.parseSub(ObjectParser.java:410)
at org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.ObjectParser.parse(ObjectParser.java:238)
at org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.ConstructingObjectParser.parse(ConstructingObjectParser.java:169)
at org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.ConstructingObjectParser.apply(ConstructingObjectParser.java:161)
at org.elasticsearch.action.search.MultiSearchResponse.fromXContext(MultiSearchResponse.java:194)
at org.elasticsearch.client.RestHighLevelClient.parseEntity(RestHighLevelClient.java:1793)
at org.elasticsearch.client.RestHighLevelClient.lambda$performRequestAsyncAndParseEntity$10(RestHighLevelClient.java:1581)
at org.elasticsearch.client.RestHighLevelClient$1.onSuccess(RestHighLevelClient.java:1663)
at org.elasticsearch.client.RestClient$FailureTrackingResponseListener.onSuccess(RestClient.java:590)
at org.elasticsearch.client.RestClient$1.completed(RestClient.java:333)
at org.elasticsearch.client.RestClient$1.completed(RestClient.java:327)
at org.apache.http.concurrent.BasicFuture.completed(BasicFuture.java:122)
at org.apache.http.impl.nio.client.DefaultClientExchangeHandlerImpl.responseCompleted(DefaultClientExchangeHandlerImpl.java:181)
at org.apache.http.nio.protocol.HttpAsyncRequestExecutor.processResponse(HttpAsyncRequestExecutor.java:448)
at org.apache.http.nio.protocol.HttpAsyncRequestExecutor.inputReady(HttpAsyncRequestExecutor.java:338)
at org.apache.http.impl.nio.DefaultNHttpClientConnection.consumeInput(DefaultNHttpClientConnection.java:265)
at org.apache.http.impl.nio.client.InternalIODispatch.onInputReady(InternalIODispatch.java:81)
at org.apache.http.impl.nio.client.InternalIODispatch.onInputReady(InternalIODispatch.java:39)
at org.apache.http.impl.nio.reactor.AbstractIODispatch.inputReady(AbstractIODispatch.java:114)
at org.apache.http.impl.nio.reactor.BaseIOReactor.readable(BaseIOReactor.java:162)
at org.apache.http.impl.nio.reactor.AbstractIOReactor.processEvent(AbstractIOReactor.java:337)
at org.apache.http.impl.nio.reactor.AbstractIOReactor.processEvents(AbstractIOReactor.java:315)
at org.apache.http.impl.nio.reactor.AbstractIOReactor.execute(AbstractIOReactor.java:276)
at org.apache.http.impl.nio.reactor.BaseIOReactor.execute(BaseIOReactor.java:104)
at org.apache.http.impl.nio.reactor.AbstractMultiworkerIOReactor$Worker.run(AbstractMultiworkerIOReactor.java:591)
at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:834)
```
---
### Author:  [@Hendrik\_Muhs](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Hendrik_Muhs)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2020, 6:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/datehistogramaggregation-with-composite-sub-aggregation/232751/2 "2020-05-15T06:44:23Z")
Hi,
can you describe your usecase and if possible provide a data example? There is probably an alternative to solve the problem. The purpose of a composite aggregation is to page through a larger dataset. I therefore wonder about using a composite aggregation as sub aggregation.
As for validation: This is by design, the client code only does simple validations but most validations are done server side.
---
### Author:  [@plm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/plm)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2020, 3:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/datehistogramaggregation-with-composite-sub-aggregation/232751/3 "2020-05-15T15:00:46Z")
Hendrik,
Thanks for your response. My use case is to compute hourly metrics based on applications state. So each hour I want to know how many instances of a given application was executed broken by state. For instance:
Application A, Version 1.0, State: Successful, 10 instances
Application A, Version 1.0, State: Faulted, 2 Instances
Application B, Version 2.0, State: Successful, 3 instances
Application C, Version 1.0, State: Aborted, 2 Instances
I am guessing the alternative to using a composite aggregation as sub-aggregation to the top Date Histogram Aggregation would be to use several levels of sub term aggregations.
Thanks,
Philippe
---
### Author:  [@Hendrik\_Muhs](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Hendrik_Muhs)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2020, 11:43am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/datehistogramaggregation-with-composite-sub-aggregation/232751/4 "2020-05-16T11:43:01Z")
The most important usecase for composite aggregations is pagination, this allows you to retrieve _all_ buckets even if you have a lot of buckets and therefore ordinary aggregations run into limits.
A composite aggregation can have several sources, so you can use a `date_histogram` _and_ e.g. a `terms` source for the application:
```auto
"composite" : {
"sources" : [
{ "date": { "date_histogram" : { "field": "timestamp", "fixed_interval": "1h" } } },
{ "application": { "terms" : { "field": "app" } } }
]
}
```
Are you planning to store the results to e.g. further analyze it? [Transform](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/transforms.html) is build on top of composite aggs, made for usescases like yours. This saves custom code, is already build for robustness and scale (and there is a nice UI to get you started easily).
---
### Author:  [@plm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/plm)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2020, 4:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/datehistogramaggregation-with-composite-sub-aggregation/232751/5 "2020-05-16T16:57:20Z")
Hendrik,
Thanks again. This makes sense. I didn't know I could use a date histogram as one of the sources for a composite aggregation. Also thanks for pointing out the Transform functionality.
Philippe
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2020, 4:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/datehistogramaggregation-with-composite-sub-aggregation/232751/6 "2020-06-13T16:57:26Z")
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