# How to exclude a field from a search **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [December 13, 2011, 9:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-exclude-a-field-from-a-search/6150 "2011-12-13T21:06:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![danpolites](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/danpolites/32/2136_2.png) [@danpolites](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/danpolites)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 9:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-exclude-a-field-from-a-search/6150/1 "2011-12-13T21:06:40Z")
I'm looking for a way to exclude a field from a search. For example, I have a user index with fields a, b, and c. I want to search on only fields a and b in most cases and occasionally search on a, b, and c. In my case, it would be more convenient to be able to specify the single field that I want to exclude form the search than to list out each field individually with the search query. Is there a way to do this? ---
**Author:** ![Lukas\_Vlcek1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/lukas_vlcek1/32/819_2.png) [@Lukas\_Vlcek1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Lukas_Vlcek1)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 9:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-exclude-a-field-from-a-search/6150/2 "2011-12-13T21:24:39Z")
Hi, I do not think that is possible. -- Regards, Lukas On Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 10:06 PM, danpolites wrote: > I'm looking for a way to exclude a field from a search. For example, I > have a user index with fields a, b, and c. I want to search on only > fields a and b in most cases and occasionally search on a, b, and c. > In my case, it would be more convenient to be able to specify the > single field that I want to exclude form the search than to list out > each field individually with the search query. Is there a way to do > this? ---
**Author:** ![kimchy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/kimchy/32/44952_2.png) [@kimchy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kimchy)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 10:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-exclude-a-field-from-a-search/6150/3 "2011-12-13T22:59:47Z")
Are you talking about the query\_string query, where you can specify a list of fields? It can potentially be implemented because we know the fields based on the mappings. The danger there is that people might end up querying a lot of fields which is expensive. On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 11:06 PM, danpolites [dpolites@gmail.com](mailto:dpolites@gmail.com) wrote: > I'm looking for a way to exclude a field from a search. For example, I > have a user index with fields a, b, and c. I want to search on only > fields a and b in most cases and occasionally search on a, b, and c. > In my case, it would be more convenient to be able to specify the > single field that I want to exclude form the search than to list out > each field individually with the search query. Is there a way to do > this? ---
**Author:** ![danpolites](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/danpolites/32/2136_2.png) [@danpolites](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/danpolites)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-exclude-a-field-from-a-search/6150/4 "2011-12-27T17:35:23Z")
I think so. The use case is that we have a tag field that we want administrators to be able to search, but we don't want user search results to search on that field. On Dec 13, 5:59 pm, Shay Banon [kim...@gmail.com](mailto:kim...@gmail.com) wrote: > Are you talking about the query\_string query, where you can specify a list > of fields? It can potentially be implemented because we know the fields > based on the mappings. The danger there is that people might end up > querying a lot of fields which is expensive. > > On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 11:06 PM, danpolites [dpoli...@gmail.com](mailto:dpoli...@gmail.com) wrote: > > > I'm looking for a way to exclude a field from a search. For example, I > > have a user index with fields a, b, and c. I want to search on only > > fields a and b in most cases and occasionally search on a, b, and c. > > In my case, it would be more convenient to be able to specify the > > single field that I want to exclude form the search than to list out > > each field individually with the search query. Is there a way to do > > this? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 3:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-exclude-a-field-from-a-search/6150/5 "2017-07-06T03:44:16Z")