# Is it possible to write a json/painless script that ignores some values?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-possible-to-write-a-json-painless-script-that-ignores-some-values/159637>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [December 6, 2018, 2:47am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-possible-to-write-a-json-painless-script-that-ignores-some-values/159637 "2018-12-06T02:47:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gyau](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/gyau/32/37824_2.png) [@gyau](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/gyau)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2018, 2:47am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-possible-to-write-a-json-painless-script-that-ignores-some-values/159637/1 "2018-12-06T02:47:51Z")

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I thought of using a scripted field or just inputting a json script when visualizing data. For example, if I wanted to calculate the average of a field named 'time', but I don't want to take into account the docs with the 'time' field that equals a negative number.

If I had 10 docs, where 2 of them have 'time' = -1, it should only take into account 8 docs in order to calculate the average.

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**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:** [December 7, 2018, 9:01am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-possible-to-write-a-json-painless-script-that-ignores-some-values/159637/2 "2018-12-07T09:01:18Z")

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you could filter out those documents using a [range query](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.5/query-dsl-range-query.html), which is much faster than painless. Why do you specifically ask for painless, I guess I am missing something?

--Alex

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 9:01am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-possible-to-write-a-json-painless-script-that-ignores-some-values/159637/3 "2019-01-04T09:01:19Z")

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