# Filter by categories
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filter-by-categories/271788
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [April 30, 2021, 1:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filter-by-categories/271788 "2021-04-30T13:49:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ehsan\_kabiri\_33](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ehsan_kabiri_33)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2021, 1:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filter-by-categories/271788/1 "2021-04-30T13:49:36Z")
My Index has a property named `categoryId`.My category Ids at the moment are `[1,2,3]` but there could be more categories like `[1,2,3,4,5]` in the future. Each record in my index can belongs to no categoryId , one categoryId or some categoryIds .
Currently I use a `List` in my `c#` application as a list of categories for each record in my index.
This is a brief on how I index my records:
```auto
//some codes here
.Map(m => m
.Dynamic(DynamicMapping.Strict)
.AutoMap()
.Properties(ps => ps
.Keyword(k => k.Name(f => f.itemCategories).Norms(false))
//some codes here
```
And at the moment I filter my records by category like this, for example I need records which `categoryId=2` , so:
```auto
//some codes here
multiSearchResponse = await client.MultiSearchAsync(selector: ms => ms
.Search("Fuzziness_0", s => s
.Index("itemindex")
.From(0)
.Size(15)
.Query(q => q
.Bool(b => b
.Filter(f => f.Term(t => t.itemCategories, "2"))
.Must(mu => mu
.Match(m => m
.Field(f => f.itemSearch)
.Query(searchViewModel.searchText)
.Operator(Operator.And)
)
)
)
)
//some codes here
```
Just focus on the `Filter` line. I need to know if there is a better way than what I have done, for filtering my searches by `categoryId`, cause at the moment I have about 200k records and I created a single record with `categoryId=8` and query time has no difference with or without using `Filter categoryId=8` . But in MySQL there is a significant difference in query time with or without `categoryId` filtering, cause when I use `where categoryId=8` in MySQL, it passes all the records except the one and so fast !!
How do you Filter your record by category in elastic search when you have flexible categories and a record can have multiple categories??
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2021, 1:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filter-by-categories/271788/2 "2021-05-28T13:50:28Z")
This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.