# Filter documents that contain array with empty string
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filter-documents-that-contain-array-with-empty-string/296562
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [February 8, 2022, 8:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filter-documents-that-contain-array-with-empty-string/296562 "2022-02-08T08:44:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Muhammad\_Ahmad](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Muhammad_Ahmad)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2022, 8:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filter-documents-that-contain-array-with-empty-string/296562/1 "2022-02-08T08:44:05Z")
I've documents in Elasticsearch and I want to filter out the documents that contain an array of only empty strings or have nothing / empty array.
```auto
#doc 1
{
"_index": "my-index-000001",
"_type": "_doc",
"_id": "0",
"_source": {
"doc":{
"field": ["",""]
}
}
}
#doc 2
{
"_index": "my-index-000001",
"_type": "_doc",
"_id": "0",
"_source": {
"doc":{
"field": []
}
}
}
#doc 3
{
"_index": "my-index-000001",
"_type": "_doc",
"_id": "0",
"_source": {
"doc":{
"field": ["hello",""]
}
}
}
```
From the above documents is it possible to filter out only doc 1 and doc 2 as for these, the "field" either contains nothing in the array or only empty string(s).
---
### Author:  [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2022, 9:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filter-documents-that-contain-array-with-empty-string/296562/2 "2022-02-08T09:07:54Z")
Welcome to our community! 😃
What about something like;
```auto
{
"query": {
"filtered": {
"filter": {
"bool": {
"must_not": [
{
"exists": {
"field": "your_field"
}
}
]
}
}
}
},
"from": 0,
"size": 500
}
```
---
### Author:  [@Muhammad\_Ahmad](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Muhammad_Ahmad)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2022, 9:14am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filter-documents-that-contain-array-with-empty-string/296562/3 "2022-02-08T09:14:40Z")
Thanks for the reply... Happy to be on board!
I tried this but it throws the exception "no [query] registered for [filtered]"
---
### Author:  [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2022, 9:17am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filter-documents-that-contain-array-with-empty-string/296562/4 "2022-02-08T09:17:53Z")
Yeah I think there's an extra `filtered` in there that shouldn't be.
What about;
```auto
GET /_search
{
"query": {
"bool": {
"must_not": {
"exists": {
"field": "your_field"
}
}
}
}
}
```
---
### Author:  [@Muhammad\_Ahmad](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Muhammad_Ahmad)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2022, 9:42am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filter-documents-that-contain-array-with-empty-string/296562/5 "2022-02-08T09:42:15Z")
Really appreciate your help but this query is returning all the documents, that contain array with empty strings or nonempty strings, can you please have a look at the sample docs in the questions? if there is anything I can add up there for reference?
---
### Author:  [@Tomo\_M](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Tomo_M)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2022, 3:54pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filter-documents-that-contain-array-with-empty-string/296562/6 "2022-02-08T15:54:14Z")
If you are using keyword family field type, how about this?
```auto
GET /test_filter/_search
{
"query":{
"regexp": {
"myField": ".+"
}
}
}
```
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2022, 3:54pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filter-documents-that-contain-array-with-empty-string/296562/7 "2022-03-08T15:54:26Z")
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