# How to retrieve fields that are arrays **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [February 1, 2012, 5:19am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-retrieve-fields-that-are-arrays/6560 "2012-02-01T05:19:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nick\_Hoffman](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/nick_hoffman/32/1872_2.png) [@Nick\_Hoffman](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Nick_Hoffman)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 5:19am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-retrieve-fields-that-are-arrays/6560/1 "2012-02-01T05:19:26Z")
Hey guys. I've just noticed that if a search's "fields" option contains the name of an array-field, the array-field isn't returned. In the example below, the "name" field is returned, but not the "data" field. Why is that? Thanks, Nick $ curl -X DELETE 'localhost:9200/test' $ curl -X PUT 'localhost:9200/test' $ curl -X POST 'localhost:9200/test/test/1' -d '{ name: "Nick", age: 30, data: [{foo: "bar"}] }' $ curl 'localhost:9200/test/test/\_search?pretty=1' -d '{ fields: ["name", "data"] }' { "took" : 1, "timed\_out" : false, "\_shards" : { "total" : 5, "successful" : 5, "failed" : 0 }, "hits" : { "total" : 1, "max\_score" : 1.0, "hits" : [ { "\_index" : "test", "\_type" : "test", "\_id" : "1", "\_score" : 1.0, "fields" : { "name" : "Nick" } } ] } } ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 6:25am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-retrieve-fields-that-are-arrays/6560/2 "2012-02-01T06:25:00Z")
Did you try with "data.foo" ? I don't think that you can get the array. But, if you did not disable source, you could get the full document (and the source array) HTH David 😉 @dadoonet Le 1 févr. 2012 à 06:19, Nick Hoffman [nick@deadorange.com](mailto:nick@deadorange.com) a écrit : > Hey guys. I've just noticed that if a search's "fields" option contains the name of an array-field, the array-field isn't returned. > > In the example below, the "name" field is returned, but not the "data" field. Why is that? > > Thanks, > Nick > > $ curl -X DELETE 'localhost:9200/test' > $ curl -X PUT 'localhost:9200/test' > > $ curl -X POST 'localhost:9200/test/test/1' -d '{ name: "Nick", age: 30, data: [{foo: "bar"}] }' > > $ curl 'localhost:9200/test/test/\_search?pretty=1' -d '{ fields: ["name", "data"] }' > { > "took" : 1, > "timed\_out" : false, > "\_shards" : { > "total" : 5, > "successful" : 5, > "failed" : 0 > }, > "hits" : { > "total" : 1, > "max\_score" : 1.0, > "hits" : [ { > "\_index" : "test", > "\_type" : "test", > "\_id" : "1", > "\_score" : 1.0, > "fields" : { > "name" : "Nick" > } > } ] > } > } ---
**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:** [February 1, 2012, 11:08am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-retrieve-fields-that-are-arrays/6560/3 "2012-02-01T11:08:19Z")
Which version are you using? I executed it on latest 0.18.7 and it works well and returns the data array... On Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 7:19 AM, Nick Hoffman wrote: > Hey guys. I've just noticed that if a search's "fields" option contains the name of an array-field, the array-field isn't returned. > > In the example below, the "name" field is returned, but not the "data" field. Why is that? > > Thanks, > Nick > > $ curl -X DELETE 'localhost:9200/test' > $ curl -X PUT 'localhost:9200/test' > > $ curl -X POST 'localhost:9200/test/test/1' -d '{ name: "Nick", age: 30, data: [{foo: "bar"}] }' > > $ curl 'localhost:9200/test/test/\_search?pretty=1' -d '{ fields: ["name", "data"] }' > { > "took" : 1, > "timed\_out" : false, > "\_shards" : { > "total" : 5, > "successful" : 5, > "failed" : 0 > }, > "hits" : { > "total" : 1, > "max\_score" : 1.0, > "hits" : [ { > "\_index" : "test", > "\_type" : "test", > "\_id" : "1", > "\_score" : 1.0, > "fields" : { > "name" : "Nick" > } > } ] > } > } ---
**Author:** ![Nick\_Hoffman](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/nick_hoffman/32/1872_2.png) [@Nick\_Hoffman](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Nick_Hoffman)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 2:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-retrieve-fields-that-are-arrays/6560/4 "2012-02-01T14:57:26Z")
On Wednesday, 1 February 2012 01:25:00 UTC-5, David Pilato wrote: > Did you try with "data.foo" ? > I don't think that you can get the array. > But, if you did not disable source, you could get the full document (and > the source array) > > HTH > David 😉 > @dadoonet Yeah, I tried both "data.foo" and "data.\*", but neither worked. I could retrieve \_source and examine that, but my documents are quite large, so that's a lot of extra data to return. ---
**Author:** ![Nick\_Hoffman](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/nick_hoffman/32/1872_2.png) [@Nick\_Hoffman](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Nick_Hoffman)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 3:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-retrieve-fields-that-are-arrays/6560/5 "2012-02-01T15:05:33Z")
On Wednesday, 1 February 2012 06:08:19 UTC-5, kimchy wrote: > Which version are you using? I executed it on latest 0.18.7 and it works > well and returns the data array... You're right! I just upgraded from 0.17.something , and the "data" field's returned now. Thanks, Shay. ---
**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, 3:40am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-retrieve-fields-that-are-arrays/6560/6 "2017-07-06T03:40:46Z")