# Empty list vs field not present

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/empty-list-vs-field-not-present/20171>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [October 9, 2014, 8:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/empty-list-vs-field-not-present/20171 "2014-10-09T20:48:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Liam\_Atkinson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@Liam\_Atkinson](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Liam_Atkinson)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 8:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/empty-list-vs-field-not-present/20171/1 "2014-10-09T20:48:30Z")

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Is there anywhere in the API that a field being missing is not equivalent  
to an empty list?

As an example, is it generally true that

{ "some\_object" : []  
, "title" : "title" }

is equivalent to

{ "title" : "title" }

as far as elastic search is concerned?

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---

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**Author:** ![jpountz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jpountz/32/45836_2.png) [@jpountz](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jpountz)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 10:16pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/empty-list-vs-field-not-present/20171/2 "2014-10-09T22:16:43Z")

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Hi Liam,

Both documents would indeed be indexed the same way (except the \_source  
field).

On Thu, Oct 9, 2014 at 10:48 PM, Liam Atkinson [liamatkinson@gmail.com](mailto:liamatkinson@gmail.com)  
wrote:

> Is there anywhere in the API that a field being missing is not equivalent  
> to an empty list?
> 
> As an example, is it generally true that
> 
> { "some\_object" :   
> , "title" : "title" }
> 
> is equivalent to
> 
> { "title" : "title" }
> 
> as far as Elasticsearch is concerned?
> 
> --  
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups  
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> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an  
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> To view this discussion on the web visit  
> [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/dec382ee-14f3-4fad-89a3-4238e60e77c0%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/dec382ee-14f3-4fad-89a3-4238e60e77c0%40googlegroups.com)  
> [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/dec382ee-14f3-4fad-89a3-4238e60e77c0%40googlegroups.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/dec382ee-14f3-4fad-89a3-4238e60e77c0%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer)  
> .  
> For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout).

--  
Adrien Grand

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---

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**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, 12:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/empty-list-vs-field-not-present/20171/3 "2017-07-06T00:57:11Z")

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