# How do I return only one result per type? **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [March 16, 2017, 9:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-do-i-return-only-one-result-per-type/78936 "2017-03-16T21:35:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![coogle](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/coogle/32/15175_2.png) [@coogle](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/coogle)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 9:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-do-i-return-only-one-result-per-type/78936/1 "2017-03-16T21:35:50Z")
Hello, I have a nested mapping as follows: ```auto { "fbs": { "mappings": { "institution": { "properties": { "document": { "type": "nested", "properties": { "document_id": { "type": "long" }, "expiration_date": { "type": "date" }, "flags": { "type": "text", "norms": false, "analyzer": "comma" }, "is_active": { "type": "boolean" }, "is_current": { "type": "boolean" }, "name": { "type": "text" }, "section": { "type": "nested", "properties": { "created_at": { "type": "date" }, "data": { "type": "text", "fields": { "keyword": { "type": "keyword", "ignore_above": 256 } } }, "file": { "type": "nested", "properties": { "author": { "type": "text", "fields": { "keyword": { "type": "keyword", "ignore_above": 256 } } }, "content": { "type": "text", "analyzer": "standard", "search_analyzer": "fbs_search_analyzer" }, "content_length": { "type": "long" }, "content_type": { "type": "text", "fields": { "keyword": { "type": "keyword", "ignore_above": 256 } } }, "date": { "type": "date" }, "keywords": { "type": "text", "fields": { "keyword": { "type": "keyword", "ignore_above": 256 } } }, "language": { "type": "text", "fields": { "keyword": { "type": "keyword", "ignore_above": 256 } } }, "title": { "type": "text", "fields": { "keyword": { "type": "keyword", "ignore_above": 256 } } } } }, "filename": { "type": "text", "norms": false }, "fingerprint": { "type": "text", "norms": false }, "flags": { "type": "text", "norms": false, "analyzer": "comma" }, "is_active": { "type": "boolean" }, "name": { "type": "text" }, "section_id": { "type": "long" }, "updated_at": { "type": "date" } } }, "start_date": { "type": "date" } } }, "institution_id": { "type": "long" }, "name_en": { "type": "text", "norms": false }, "name_fr": { "type": "text", "norms": false }, "region_id": { "type": "long" } } } } } } ``` I am currently searching on `document.section.file.content` for example to pull documents out that match my keywords. However, what I want to do is limit the results to only _one_ match (the highest relevancy) per unique document\_id. I.e. I have a single logical "document" that is represented by 10 PDF "sections", I am searching those sections but I only want to return the top result per document (i.e. limit 1 result per document\_id) Is there a way I can coax ES into doing this or am I better off just post-processing the results? John ---
**Author:** ![nik9000](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/nik9000/32/44947_2.png) [@nik9000](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nik9000)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 10:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-do-i-return-only-one-result-per-type/78936/2 "2017-03-16T22:05:07Z")
I'd use `msearch` for that. ---
**Author:** ![coogle](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/coogle/32/15175_2.png) [@coogle](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/coogle)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2017, 12:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-do-i-return-only-one-result-per-type/78936/3 "2017-03-17T00:45:25Z")
I'm not sure how msearch would be used to limit the results to one section per document? ---
**Author:** ![nik9000](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/nik9000/32/44947_2.png) [@nik9000](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nik9000)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2017, 2:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-do-i-return-only-one-result-per-type/78936/4 "2017-03-17T14:34:37Z")
Ah, reread your problem. I thought you wanted something else. I don't know nested documents super well so I can't help you off hand. There might be something special for nested documents I don't know about, but this problem looks similar to [field collapsing](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/5.x/search-request-collapse.html) which is implemented in the next minor version of Elasticsearch. ---
**Author:** ![coogle](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/coogle/32/15175_2.png) [@coogle](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/coogle)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 6:31am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-do-i-return-only-one-result-per-type/78936/5 "2017-03-18T06:31:54Z")
I was able in the end to mostly solve my problem by using a top\_hits aggregation. Unfortunately one of the problems there is that in doing so I've lost the ability to page results. Thankfully I have a small enough data set where I can programmatically page once I get the results back without too much trouble but I really wish ES had some sort of way of doing that internally. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2017, 6:32am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-do-i-return-only-one-result-per-type/78936/6 "2017-04-15T06:32:40Z")
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