# Is there anyway to stop arrays with one element from being returned as a single value
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-there-anyway-to-stop-arrays-with-one-element-from-being-returned-as-a-single-value/12704
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [July 8, 2013, 3:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-there-anyway-to-stop-arrays-with-one-element-from-being-returned-as-a-single-value/12704 "2013-07-08T15:07:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Raja\_Mukherji](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Raja_Mukherji)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2013, 3:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-there-anyway-to-stop-arrays-with-one-element-from-being-returned-as-a-single-value/12704/1 "2013-07-08T15:07:25Z")
I'm using elasticsearch as my main database. I'm using some fields as
arrays, and always upload arrays for those fields even if there's only one
element in the array. The \_source always contains the unchanged array, but
a search request with specific fields converts arrays with a single element
into a single value. Is there a way to prevent this behaviour?
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### Author:  [@Boaz\_Leskes](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Boaz_Leskes)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2013, 12:13pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-there-anyway-to-stop-arrays-with-one-element-from-being-returned-as-a-single-value/12704/2 "2013-07-09T12:13:18Z")
Hi Raja,
There is no way just yet but we are working on a solution (
[Add finer control over `_source` retrieval, in `get`, `mget`, `get_source`, `explain` & `search` API · Issue #3301 · elastic/elasticsearch · GitHub](https://github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch/issues/3301) ). This
behaviour has to do with the original intention of the fields parameter -
exposing lucene stored fields. If you are using the search API you can use
partial\_fields instead, which will leave the array intact
- [Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale | Elastic](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/api/search/fields/)
Cheers,
Boaz
On Monday, July 8, 2013 5:07:25 PM UTC+2, Raja Mukherji wrote:
> I'm using elasticsearch as my main database. I'm using some fields as
> arrays, and always upload arrays for those fields even if there's only one
> element in the array. The \_source always contains the unchanged array, but
> a search request with specific fields converts arrays with a single element
> into a single value. Is there a way to prevent this behaviour?
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### Author:  [@Raja\_Mukherji](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Raja_Mukherji)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2013, 3:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-there-anyway-to-stop-arrays-with-one-element-from-being-returned-as-a-single-value/12704/3 "2013-07-09T15:10:01Z")
Hi Boaz,
Thanks, that works fine except for one case it seems. If I request a field
"objectfield" of type object with "fields", the object value is returned.
However for "partial\_fields", I have to request "objectfield.\*", requesting
"objectfield" on its own does not return anything. I can work around this
for now though.
Also, since partial\_fields is meant to match on wildcards, is there a
performance penalty compared to just fields?
Thanks,
Raja
On Tuesday, 9 July 2013 13:13:18 UTC+1, Boaz Leskes wrote:
> Hi Raja,
>
> There is no way just yet but we are working on a solution (
> [Add finer control over `_source` retrieval, in `get`, `mget`, `get_source`, `explain` & `search` API · Issue #3301 · elastic/elasticsearch · GitHub](https://github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch/issues/3301) ). This
> behaviour has to do with the original intention of the fields parameter -
> exposing lucene stored fields. If you are using the search API you can use
> partial\_fields instead, which will leave the array intact -
> [Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale | Elastic](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/api/search/fields/)
>
> Cheers,
> Boaz
>
> On Monday, July 8, 2013 5:07:25 PM UTC+2, Raja Mukherji wrote:
>
> > I'm using elasticsearch as my main database. I'm using some fields as
> > arrays, and always upload arrays for those fields even if there's only one
> > element in the array. The \_source always contains the unchanged array, but
> > a search request with specific fields converts arrays with a single element
> > into a single value. Is there a way to prevent this behaviour?
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### Author:  [@Boaz\_Leskes](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Boaz_Leskes)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2013, 3:54pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-there-anyway-to-stop-arrays-with-one-element-from-being-returned-as-a-single-value/12704/4 "2013-07-09T15:54:06Z")
Yeah - directly selecting objects (i.e. "obj" for { obj: { field: 1 } } ,
instead of "obj.\*") is something I recently added and will be out with the
next release.
As to overhead - if you are using fields to access lucene stored fields it
may be faster because it doesn't need to load the \_source. How ever, if you
retrieving many fields, it might be faster to just load the source once.
For \_source extraction wild cards have a small overhead but it is very
minor.
On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 5:10 PM, Raja Mukherji [rajamukherji@gmail.com](mailto:rajamukherji@gmail.com)wrote:
> Hi Boaz,
>
> Thanks, that works fine except for one case it seems. If I request a field
> "objectfield" of type object with "fields", the object value is returned.
> However for "partial\_fields", I have to request "objectfield.\*", requesting
> "objectfield" on its own does not return anything. I can work around this
> for now though.
>
> Also, since partial\_fields is meant to match on wildcards, is there a
> performance penalty compared to just fields?
>
> Thanks,
> Raja
>
> On Tuesday, 9 July 2013 13:13:18 UTC+1, Boaz Leskes wrote:
>
> > Hi Raja,
> >
> > There is no way just yet but we are working on a solution (
> > [https://github.com/\*\*elasticsearch/elasticsearch/\*\*issues/3301](https://github.com/ **elasticsearch/elasticsearch/** issues/3301)[https://github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch/issues/3301](https://github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch/issues/3301)). This behaviour has to do with the original intention of the fields
> > parameter - exposing lucene stored fields. If you are using the search API
> > you can use partial\_fields instead, which will leave the array intact -
> > [http://www.elasticsearch](http://www.elasticsearch).\*\*org/guide/reference/api/\*\*search/fields/[http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/api/search/fields/](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/api/search/fields/)
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Boaz
> >
> > On Monday, July 8, 2013 5:07:25 PM UTC+2, Raja Mukherji wrote:
> >
> > > I'm using elasticsearch as my main database. I'm using some fields as
> > > arrays, and always upload arrays for those fields even if there's only one
> > > element in the array. The \_source always contains the unchanged array, but
> > > a search request with specific fields converts arrays with a single element
> > > into a single value. Is there a way to prevent this behaviour?
> >
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the
> > Google Groups "elasticsearch" group.
> > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit
> > [https://groups.google.com/d/topic/elasticsearch/1NEk7MXnMM8/unsubscribe](https://groups.google.com/d/topic/elasticsearch/1NEk7MXnMM8/unsubscribe).
> > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to
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> > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out).
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### Author:  [@Raja\_Mukherji](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Raja_Mukherji)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2013, 4:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-there-anyway-to-stop-arrays-with-one-element-from-being-returned-as-a-single-value/12704/5 "2013-07-09T16:24:57Z")
Sounds good, I'll look forward to the next release so.
Thanks again.
On Tuesday, 9 July 2013 16:54:06 UTC+1, Boaz Leskes wrote:
> Yeah - directly selecting objects (i.e. "obj" for { obj: { field: 1 } } ,
> instead of "obj.\*") is something I recently added and will be out with the
> next release.
>
> As to overhead - if you are using fields to access lucene stored fields it
> may be faster because it doesn't need to load the \_source. How ever, if you
> retrieving many fields, it might be faster to just load the source once.
> For \_source extraction wild cards have a small overhead but it is very
> minor.
>
> On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 5:10 PM, Raja Mukherji \<[rajamu...@gmail.com](mailto:rajamu...@gmail.com)\
>
> > wrote:
>
> > Hi Boaz,
> >
> > Thanks, that works fine except for one case it seems. If I request a
> > field "objectfield" of type object with "fields", the object value is
> > returned. However for "partial\_fields", I have to request "objectfield.\*",
> > requesting "objectfield" on its own does not return anything. I can work
> > around this for now though.
> >
> > Also, since partial\_fields is meant to match on wildcards, is there a
> > performance penalty compared to just fields?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Raja
> >
> > On Tuesday, 9 July 2013 13:13:18 UTC+1, Boaz Leskes wrote:
> >
> > > Hi Raja,
> > >
> > > There is no way just yet but we are working on a solution (
> > > [https://github.com/\*\*elasticsearch/elasticsearch/\*\*issues/3301](https://github.com/ **elasticsearch/elasticsearch/** issues/3301)[https://github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch/issues/3301](https://github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch/issues/3301)). This behaviour has to do with the original intention of the fields
> > > parameter - exposing lucene stored fields. If you are using the search API
> > > you can use partial\_fields instead, which will leave the array intact -
> > > [http://www.elasticsearch](http://www.elasticsearch).\*\*org/guide/reference/api/\*\*search/fields/[http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/api/search/fields/](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/api/search/fields/)
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > > Boaz
> > >
> > > On Monday, July 8, 2013 5:07:25 PM UTC+2, Raja Mukherji wrote:
> > >
> > > > I'm using elasticsearch as my main database. I'm using some fields as
> > > > arrays, and always upload arrays for those fields even if there's only one
> > > > element in the array. The \_source always contains the unchanged array, but
> > > > a search request with specific fields converts arrays with a single element
> > > > into a single value. Is there a way to prevent this behaviour?
> > >
> > > --
> > > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the
> > > Google Groups "elasticsearch" group.
> > > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit
> > > [https://groups.google.com/d/topic/elasticsearch/1NEk7MXnMM8/unsubscribe](https://groups.google.com/d/topic/elasticsearch/1NEk7MXnMM8/unsubscribe).
> > > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to
> > > [elasticsearc...@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearc...@googlegroups.com) \.
> > > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out).
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 2:27am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-there-anyway-to-stop-arrays-with-one-element-from-being-returned-as-a-single-value/12704/6 "2017-07-06T02:27:26Z")