# Difference on sorting between query\_and\_fetch and query\_then\_fetch **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [October 6, 2011, 9:27am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/difference-on-sorting-between-query-and-fetch-and-query-then-fetch/5527 "2011-10-06T09:27:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alheim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@alheim](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/alheim)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 9:27am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/difference-on-sorting-between-query-and-fetch-and-query-then-fetch/5527/1 "2011-10-06T09:27:37Z")
Hi, I try to get a list of documents ordered by a field. No specific limit or offset used. Just a search with a sort. The returned documents are just sorted "by shards". In other words, the first 3 documents are sorted right, then the 4th is not well sorted but the 10 following are well sorted comparing to the 4th... I understand that each shard returns a sorted result set. Right ? But I thought that the search\_type could change this behavior and apply the sort after having fetched documents. Please explain to me, thanks ---
**Author:** ![kimchy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/kimchy/32/44952_2.png) [@kimchy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kimchy)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 6:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/difference-on-sorting-between-query-and-fetch-and-query-then-fetch/5527/2 "2011-10-06T18:48:04Z")
You get proper sorted results when you use query\_then\_fetch (across all top "size" results), if you use query\_and\_fetch, then each shard return the size requested hits, and then they are sorted between them. On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 11:27 AM, Alexandre Heimburger \< [ahb@bluekiwi-software.com](mailto:ahb@bluekiwi-software.com)\> wrote: > Hi, > > I try to get a list of documents ordered by a field. No specific limit or > offset used. Just a search with a sort. > > The returned documents are just sorted "by shards". In other words, the > first 3 documents are sorted right, then the 4th is not well sorted but the > 10 following are well sorted comparing to the 4th... > > I understand that each shard returns a sorted result set. Right ? > > But I thought that the search\_type could change this behavior and apply the > sort after having fetched documents. > > Please explain to me, thanks ---
**Author:** ![alheim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@alheim](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/alheim)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 7:31am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/difference-on-sorting-between-query-and-fetch-and-query-then-fetch/5527/3 "2011-10-10T07:31:06Z")
Hi Kimchy, My issue is related to nested fields (again sorry). I got this strange behavior each time a use a sort pattern like "path1.path2.sortedField". Everything is working fine when sorting fields are attached directly to the root document. Any idea ? ---
**Author:** ![alheim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@alheim](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/alheim)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 9:51am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/difference-on-sorting-between-query-and-fetch-and-query-then-fetch/5527/4 "2011-10-10T09:51:32Z")
Forget my last comment please...It's monday morning. I wanted to index integer but the field was indexed as a string... Thanks again for your help (and your patience). ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 3:52am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/difference-on-sorting-between-query-and-fetch-and-query-then-fetch/5527/5 "2017-07-06T03:52:30Z")