# How does sorting on \_id work?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-sorting-on--id-work/21854
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [January 27, 2015, 6:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-sorting-on--id-work/21854 "2015-01-27T18:24:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Abid\_Hussain](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Abid_Hussain)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2015, 6:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-sorting-on--id-work/21854/1 "2015-01-27T18:24:41Z")
Hi all,
I want to determine the doc with max and min \_id value. So, when I run this
query:
GET /my\_index/order/\_search
{
"fields": ["\_id"],
"sort": [
{ "\_uid": { "order": "desc" } }
],
"size": 1
}
I get a result:
{
...
"hits": {
...
"hits": [
{
"\_index": "my\_index",
"\_type": "order",
"\_id": "999999",
"\_score": null,
"sort": [
"order#999999"
]
}
]
}
}
There is definitevely a doc with \_id value 11132106 in index which I would
have expected as result.
And, when I run the same search with _order asc_ I get a result with
\_id 1000000 which is higher than 999999...?
What am I doing wrong?
Regards,
Abid
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### Author:  [@Abid\_Hussain](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Abid_Hussain)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2015, 6:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-sorting-on--id-work/21854/2 "2015-01-27T18:28:44Z")
... can it be that \_id is treated as string? If so, is there any way
retrieve the max \_id field with treating \_id as integer?
Am Dienstag, 27. Januar 2015 19:24:41 UTC+1 schrieb Abid Hussain:
> Hi all,
>
> I want to determine the doc with max and min \_id value. So, when I run
> this query:
> GET /my\_index/order/\_search
> {
> "fields": ["\_id"],
> "sort": [
> { "\_uid": { "order": "desc" } }
> ],
> "size": 1
> }
> I get a result:
> {
> ...
> "hits": {
> ...
> "hits": [
> {
> "\_index": "my\_index",
> "\_type": "order",
> "\_id": "999999",
> "\_score": null,
> "sort": [
> "order#999999"
> ]
> }
> ]
> }
> }
>
> There is definitevely a doc with \_id value 11132106 in index which I would
> have expected as result.
>
> And, when I run the same search with _order asc_ I get a result with
> \_id 1000000 which is higher than 999999...?
>
> What am I doing wrong?
>
> Regards,
>
> Abid
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### Author:  [@brian\_yoder](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/brian_yoder)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2015, 7:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-sorting-on--id-work/21854/3 "2015-01-27T19:14:24Z")
Yes, the \_id field is a string. You are not limited to numbers. In fact, an
automatically generated ID has many non-numeric characters in it.
For what you want, you should create an id field, map it to a long integer,
and then copy your \_id into that id field when you load the document. Then
when you sort on the id field, you will get a numeric sort.
Hope this helps.
Brian
On Tuesday, January 27, 2015 at 1:28:44 PM UTC-5, Abid Hussain wrote:
> ... can it be that \_id is treated as string? If so, is there any way
> retrieve the max \_id field with treating \_id as integer?
>
> Am Dienstag, 27. Januar 2015 19:24:41 UTC+1 schrieb Abid Hussain:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I want to determine the doc with max and min \_id value. So, when I run
> > this query:
> > GET /my\_index/order/\_search
> > {
> > "fields": ["\_id"],
> > "sort": [
> > { "\_uid": { "order": "desc" } }
> > ],
> > "size": 1
> > }
> > I get a result:
> > {
> > ...
> > "hits": {
> > ...
> > "hits": [
> > {
> > "\_index": "my\_index",
> > "\_type": "order",
> > "\_id": "999999",
> > "\_score": null,
> > "sort": [
> > "order#999999"
> > ]
> > }
> > ]
> > }
> > }
> >
> > There is definitevely a doc with \_id value 11132106 in index which I
> > would have expected as result.
> >
> > And, when I run the same search with _order asc_ I get a result with
> > \_id 1000000 which is higher than 999999...?
> >
> > What am I doing wrong?
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Abid
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 12:36am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-does-sorting-on--id-work/21854/4 "2017-07-06T00:36:21Z")