# Issue with specifying the correct buckets\_path
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-with-specifying-the-correct-buckets-path/93950
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [July 20, 2017, 1:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-with-specifying-the-correct-buckets-path/93950 "2017-07-20T13:35:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Michael.Craig](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Michael.Craig)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2017, 1:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-with-specifying-the-correct-buckets-path/93950/1 "2017-07-20T13:35:48Z")
Hello,
I am trying to find the hourly maximum of a date\_histogram aggregation with an interval of 1 hour.
I have looked at the documentation for pipeline aggregations, which is useful and interesting but I cannot correctly apply it for my case.
[https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/search-aggregations-pipeline.html#buckets-path-syntax](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/search-aggregations-pipeline.html#buckets-path-syntax)
```auto
GET test/_search
{
"size": 0,
"query": {
"bool": {
"must": [
{
"match": {"Collection": "XSF"}
}]
}
},
"aggs": {
"group_by_service":
{
"terms":
{"field": "Name.keyword",
"size": 1},
"aggs": {
"hourly": {
"date_histogram": {
"field": "@timestamp",
"interval": "hour",
"time_zone": "+01:00"
},
"aggs": {
"sum_the_count": {
"sum": {
"field": "Count"
}
}
}
}
}},
"max_hourly_sv": {
"max_bucket": {
"buckets_path": "group_by_service.sum_the_count"
}
}
}
}
```
Output that pertains to my question is as follows
```auto
"max_hourly_sv": {
"value": null,
"keys": []
}
}
```
Using
```auto
"buckets_path": "group_by_service>hourly.sum_the_count"
```
Returns the error
```auto
"caused_by": {
"type": "aggregation_execution_exception",
"reason": "buckets_path must reference either a number value or a single value numeric metric aggregation, got: java.lang.Object[]"
```
I feel as though I am misunderstanding or misusing the syntax of buckets\_path.
Thanks.
Also (apologies!) how do I format the relevant sections of my question as it looks in Dev Tools.
---
### Author:  [@PaulieMac](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/PaulieMac)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2017, 3:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-with-specifying-the-correct-buckets-path/93950/2 "2017-07-20T15:04:23Z")
I have some aggs that do something vaguely similar, I have attempted to adapt your query to the pattern I use - hopefully the syntax is good (I am not in front of an ES cluster at the mo to test it!) 🙂
Basically, I am not sure if the bucket syntax can go that extra level your original query would need (i.e. sibling\>child\>grandchild). I've never tried! What I have done below is add the 'max\_hourly\_inner' bucket agg as an intermediary step, so the 'outer' bucket agg has a 'sibling\>child' to target... Hope this helps!
```auto
{
"size": 0,
"query": {
"bool": {
"must": [{
"match": {"Collection": "XSF"}
}]
}
},
"aggs": {
"group_by_service": {
"terms": {"field": "Name.keyword", "size": 1},
"aggs": {
"hourly": {
"date_histogram": {
"field": "@timestamp",
"interval": "hour",
"time_zone": "+01:00"
},
"aggs": {
"sum_the_count": {
"sum": {
"field": "Count"
}
}
}
},
"max_hourly_inner": {
"max_bucket": {
"buckets_path": "hourly>sum_the_count"
}
}
}
},
"max_hourly_sv": {
"max_bucket": {
"buckets_path": "group_by_service>max_hourly_inner"
}
}
}
}
```
---
### Author:  [@PaulieMac](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/PaulieMac)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2017, 3:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-with-specifying-the-correct-buckets-path/93950/3 "2017-07-20T15:07:17Z")
Oh, and by opening and closing a block of text in three ' symbols, it will make it format like code:
```
hello world()
exit()
```
becomes
```auto
hello world()
exit()
```
---
### Author:  [@Michael.Craig](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Michael.Craig)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2017, 4:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-with-specifying-the-correct-buckets-path/93950/4 "2017-07-20T16:29:16Z")
That has worked perfectly thanks very much! 🙂
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2017, 4:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-with-specifying-the-correct-buckets-path/93950/5 "2017-08-17T16:29:56Z")
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