# Facet filter confusion

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/facet-filter-confusion/4403>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [May 13, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/facet-filter-confusion/4403 "2011-05-13T21:07:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Greg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@Greg](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Greg)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/facet-filter-confusion/4403/1 "2011-05-13T21:07:39Z")

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Hi all

Apologies for another newbie question.

What is the difference between 'filter' as described here[1] and  
'facet\_filter' as described here[2]?

Many thanks  
Greg

[1] [http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/api/search/facets/filter-facet.html](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/api/search/facets/filter-facet.html)  
[2] [http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/api/search/facets/](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/api/search/facets/)  
('Filter' section at the bottom of the page)

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**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:** [May 14, 2011, 11:55am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/facet-filter-confusion/4403/2 "2011-05-14T11:55:47Z")

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The filter facet type ([1]) is simply a facet type, that returns a count of the docs matching the filter. The filter\_facet [2] is a generic element that can be added to _any_ facet to further filter the docs it will execute on.  
On Saturday, May 14, 2011 at 12:07 AM, Greg wrote:

> Hi all
> 
> Apologies for another newbie question.
> 
> What is the difference between 'filter' as described here[1] and  
> 'facet\_filter' as described here[2]?
> 
> Many thanks  
> Greg
> 
> [1] [Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale | Elastic](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/api/search/facets/filter-facet.html)  
> [2] [Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale | Elastic](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/api/search/facets/)  
> ('Filter' section at the bottom of the page)

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**Author:** ![Greg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@Greg](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Greg)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 12:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/facet-filter-confusion/4403/3 "2011-05-15T12:59:10Z")

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That makes perfect sense. Thanks Shay!

Greg

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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, 4:06am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/facet-filter-confusion/4403/4 "2017-07-06T04:06:13Z")

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