# How do I create an ElasticSearch filter on two nested objects so that the results only includes documents that match both conditions

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-do-i-create-an-elasticsearch-filter-on-two-nested-objects-so-that-the-results-only-includes-documents-that-match-both-conditions/206656>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [November 5, 2019, 5:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-do-i-create-an-elasticsearch-filter-on-two-nested-objects-so-that-the-results-only-includes-documents-that-match-both-conditions/206656 "2019-11-05T17:45:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fitterweb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3e96dc/32.png) [@fitterweb](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/fitterweb)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2019, 5:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-do-i-create-an-elasticsearch-filter-on-two-nested-objects-so-that-the-results-only-includes-documents-that-match-both-conditions/206656/1 "2019-11-05T17:45:30Z")

</div>

How do I create an `ElasticSearch` filter query on nested objects so that the results match both?

I have documents that include nested objects like the following:

```
{
"objectNumber": "1",
"nestedObjects": [
    {
        "category": "position",
        "tag": "2300"
    },        
    {
        "category": "scope",
        "tag": "External"
    }  

    ]

```

}

{

"objectNumber": "2",  
"nestedObjects": [  
{  
"category": "position",  
"tag": "2300"  
},  
{  
"category": "scope",  
"tag": "Internal"  
}

```
]

```

}

{

"objectNumber": "3",  
"nestedObjects": [  
{  
"category": "position",  
"tag": "2300"  
},  
{  
"category": "scope",  
"tag": "Internal"  
}

```
]

```

}

And I would like to execute a query that returns only the documents that have a nested object with `category=position` and `tag=2300` AND a nested object with `category=scope` and `tag=Internal` . `objectNumber` 2 and 3 but not 1.

I've gotten as far as this:

```
{
  "query": {
    "nested": {
      "path": "tags",
      "query": {
        "bool": {
          "should": [
            {
              "bool": {
                "filter": [
                  {
                    "match": {
                      "tags.category": "position"
                    }
                  },
                  {
                    "match": {
                      "tags.tag": "2200"
                    }
                  },
                  {
                    "match": {
                      "tags.category": "scope"
                    }
                  },
                  {
                    "match": {
                      "tags.tag": "Internal"
                    }
                  }
                ]
              }
            }

          ]
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

```

Which returns all 3 objects and not just 2 and 3. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![spinscale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/spinscale/32/25011_2.png) [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 9:25am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-do-i-create-an-elasticsearch-filter-on-two-nested-objects-so-that-the-results-only-includes-documents-that-match-both-conditions/206656/2 "2019-11-06T09:25:31Z")

</div>

Hey,

please take your time to properly format your JSON, as it makes things much easier to read, especially in such a case where formatting is so crucial due to be able to understand the query 🙂

how about a single bool query, with two `filter` clauses. Each of those clauses is a `nested` query, which in turn is a `bool` query with two `filter` clauses for `category` and the `tag` field.

hope that makes a bit sense when reading 🙂

--Alex

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fitterweb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3e96dc/32.png) [@fitterweb](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/fitterweb)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 1:13pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-do-i-create-an-elasticsearch-filter-on-two-nested-objects-so-that-the-results-only-includes-documents-that-match-both-conditions/206656/3 "2019-11-08T13:13:06Z")

</div>

Alexander -

Thank you for the help. Here is the JSON for the example objects that I posted properly formatted:

```
{
    "objectNumber": "1",
    "nestedObjects": [
        {
            "category": "position",
            "tag": "2300"
        },        
        {
            "category": "scope",
            "tag": "External"
        }  

        ]
}

{

"objectNumber": "2",
"nestedObjects": [
    {
        "category": "position",
        "tag": "2300"
    },        
    {
        "category": "scope",
        "tag": "Internal"
    }  

    ]
}

{

"objectNumber": "3",
"nestedObjects": [
    {
        "category": "position",
        "tag": "2300"
    },        
    {
        "category": "scope",
        "tag": "Internal"
    }  

    ]
}

```

I have been working on following your guidance but keep struggling with how to pair two filter queries with each other. I keep getting different forms of :

_"[filtered] query malformed, no start\_object after query name"_

Is there documentation on how things should be nested and how to properly setup arrays of queries?

Here is as far as I've gotten. I think I'm just missing brackets or something.

```
{
  "query": {
    "filtered": [ 
      {
    "bool": {
      "filter": {
        "nested": {
          "path": "tags",
          "query": [
            {
              "match": {
                "tags.category": "position"
              }
            },
            {
              "match": {
                "tags.tag": "2200"
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    }
    
  },
  {
    "bool": {
      "filter": {
        "nested": {
          "path": "tags",
          "query": [
            {
              "match": {
                "tags.category": "scope"
              }
            },
            {
              "match": {
                "tags.tag": "Internal"
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    }
    
  }
  ]}
}

```

Your continued help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Jim K.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![spinscale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/spinscale/32/25011_2.png) [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 3:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-do-i-create-an-elasticsearch-filter-on-two-nested-objects-so-that-the-results-only-includes-documents-that-match-both-conditions/206656/4 "2019-11-08T15:27:41Z")

</div>

it's a bit tricky to get the building blocks idea of a `bool` query right for the first time.

remove the `filtered` part, have a single `bool`, sth like this (on top of my head not valid JSON of course)

```auto
bool: {
  filter: [
    {
      "nested" : {
        "path" : "...",
        "query" : {
           "bool" : { filter: [{ tags.category=position }, { tags.tag=2200 }] }
         }
      }
     },
    {
      "nested" : {
        "path" : "...",
        "query" : {
           "bool" : { filter: [{ category=scope }, { ... }] }
         }
      }
     }
  ]
}

```

hope this makes sense

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fitterweb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3e96dc/32.png) [@fitterweb](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/fitterweb)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 3:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-do-i-create-an-elasticsearch-filter-on-two-nested-objects-so-that-the-results-only-includes-documents-that-match-both-conditions/206656/5 "2019-11-08T15:59:17Z")

</div>

Got it. This works:

```
{
  "query": {
    "bool": {
      "filter": [
        {
          "nested": {
            "path": "tags",
            "query": [
              {
                "match": {
                  "tags.category": "position"
                }
              },
              {
                "match": {
                  "tags.tag": "2200"
                }
              }
            ]
          }
        },
        {
          "nested": {
            "path": "tags",
            "query": [
              {
                "match": {
                  "tags.category": "scope"
                }
              },
              {
                "match": {
                  "tags.tag": "Internal"
                }
              }
            ]
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

```

My sense is there are other ways to structure this as well. I'll keep playing until I understand all the ins and outs. Is there a guide to what can be an array and what cannot?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![spinscale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/spinscale/32/25011_2.png) [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 4:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-do-i-create-an-elasticsearch-filter-on-two-nested-objects-so-that-the-results-only-includes-documents-that-match-both-conditions/206656/6 "2019-11-08T16:34:07Z")

</div>

hey,

in a `bool` query, every leaf can be an array, as it can contain an arbitrary number of sub queries including nesting more bool queries. Most other queries cannot have an array for their clauses on top of my head.

--Alex

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 4:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-do-i-create-an-elasticsearch-filter-on-two-nested-objects-so-that-the-results-only-includes-documents-that-match-both-conditions/206656/7 "2019-12-06T16:34:08Z")

</div>

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