# Deleting a documents using regular expressions

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-a-documents-using-regular-expressions/165038>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [January 21, 2019, 11:30am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-a-documents-using-regular-expressions/165038 "2019-01-21T11:30:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![akhilsai1499](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/akhilsai1499/32/71890_2.png) [@akhilsai1499](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/akhilsai1499)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2019, 11:30am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-a-documents-using-regular-expressions/165038/1 "2019-01-21T11:30:25Z")

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Hi

Lets say there are documents with id 1001,1002,1003,1004

Is there any method to delete the document by using the regular expressions?

DELETE indexname/100\*

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<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:** [January 21, 2019, 11:49am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-a-documents-using-regular-expressions/165038/2 "2019-01-21T11:49:28Z")

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The only way is by using delete by query feature.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![akhilsai1499](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/akhilsai1499/32/71890_2.png) [@akhilsai1499](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/akhilsai1499)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 10:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-a-documents-using-regular-expressions/165038/3 "2019-01-22T10:46:47Z")

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can u please just give me sample example once.

Thanks in advance.

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<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:** [January 22, 2019, 11:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-a-documents-using-regular-expressions/165038/4 "2019-01-22T11:46:50Z")

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Here is the documentation for Delete By Query: [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.5/docs-delete-by-query.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.5/docs-delete-by-query.html)

Here is the documentation for Regex queries: [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.5/query-dsl-regexp-query.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.5/query-dsl-regexp-query.html)

I'd recommend first trying with a search query to make sure your query is correct and then use the Delete By Query API with the same query.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![akhilsai1499](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/akhilsai1499/32/71890_2.png) [@akhilsai1499](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/akhilsai1499)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2019, 6:17am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-a-documents-using-regular-expressions/165038/5 "2019-01-24T06:17:44Z")

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Thanks a lot:)

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<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:** [February 21, 2019, 6:27am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-a-documents-using-regular-expressions/165038/6 "2019-02-21T06:27:28Z")

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