# Limit results in query **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [December 20, 2011, 11:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/limit-results-in-query/6202 "2011-12-20T23:53:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Brian\_S](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/brian_s/32/3043_2.png) [@Brian\_S](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Brian_S)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2011, 11:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/limit-results-in-query/6202/1 "2011-12-20T23:53:26Z")
In MySQL I can do something like: SELECT id FROM table WHERE field = 'foo' LIMIT 5 If the table has 10,000 rows, then this query is way way faster than if I left out the LIMIT part. In ElasticSearch, I've got the following: { "query":{ "fuzzy\_like\_this\_field":{ "body":{ "like\_text":"REALLY LONG (snip) TEXT HERE", "max\_query\_terms":1, "min\_similarity":0.95, "ignore\_tf":true } } } } When I run this search, it takes a few seconds, whereas mysql can return results for the same query in far, far less time. If I pass in the size parameter (set to 1), it successfully only returns 1 result, but the query itself doesn't appear to be any faster than if I had set the size to unlimited and returned all the results. I suspect the query is being run in its entirety and only 1 result is being returned after the query is done processing. This means the "size" attribute is useless for my purposes. Is there any way to have my search stop searching as soon as it finds a single record that matches the fuzzy search, rather than processing every record in the index before returning a response? Am I misunderstanding something more fundamental about this? Thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![James\_Cook\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@James\_Cook\_3](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/James_Cook_3)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 1:12am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/limit-results-in-query/6202/2 "2011-12-21T01:12:18Z")
I think you are misunderstanding how MySQL works. It calculates the entire result set prior to limiting the number of results in a response. This is understood clearly when you add an ORDER BY clause to the SQL query. It is true with MySQL that if your ORDER BY and WHERE clauses include only fields which are indexed, the indicies can be used to prevent a table scan situation. Your comparison of a fuzzy search using a "REALLY LONG..." text query in es vs. a query by an exact match on a field that might be indexed in MySQL is truly an apples to oranges question. You might as well of asked "How come it takes my Mini Cooper only 15 seconds to do the 1/4 mile, when it takes your Maserati Quattroporte an hour to drive from LA to San Diego. Relational databases are very fast if they can avoid table scans and just use indicies for queries. I don't know much about how ES handles a fuzzy search, so someone can correct me if I am way off base here. I suspect es will use its indicies to perform the search, except it has to calculate the levenshtein distance between the terms in each document against each term in your search criteria. Something that gets exponentially (?) more time consuming the more terms you have in your search query or the more terms in each document. ---
**Author:** ![mattweber](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mattweber/32/44940_2.png) [@mattweber](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mattweber)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 1:33am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/limit-results-in-query/6202/3 "2011-12-21T01:33:02Z")
Your SQL is equivalent to this query: curl -XGET '[http://localhost:9200/index/type/\_search?q=field:foo&size=5&fields=](http://localhost:9200/index/type/_search?q=field:foo&size=5&fields=)' Anyways, have you tried using "query and fetch"? > **[Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale](https://www.elastic.co)** > > Power insights and outcomes with the Elasticsearch Platform and AI. See into your data and find answers that matter with enterprise solutions designed to help you build, observe, and protect. Try Elasticsearch free today. Thanks, Matt Weber On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 5:12 PM, James Cook [jcook@pykl.com](mailto:jcook@pykl.com) wrote: > I think you are misunderstanding how MySQL works. It calculates the entire > result set prior to limiting the number of results in a response. This is > understood clearly when you add an ORDER BY clause to the SQL query. It is > true with MySQL that if your ORDER BY and WHERE clauses include only fields > which are indexed, the indicies can be used to prevent a table scan > situation. > > Your comparison of a fuzzy search using a "REALLY LONG..." text query in es > vs. a query by an exact match on a field that might be indexed in MySQL is > truly an apples to oranges question. You might as well of asked "How come it > takes my Mini Cooper only 15 seconds to do the 1/4 mile, when it takes your > Maserati Quattroporte an hour to drive from LA to San Diego. Relational > databases are very fast if they can avoid table scans and just use indicies > for queries. > > I don't know much about how ES handles a fuzzy search, so someone can > correct me if I am way off base here. I suspect es will use its indicies to > perform the search, except it has to calculate the levenshtein distance > between the terms in each document against each term in your search > criteria. Something that gets exponentially (?) more time consuming the more > terms you have in your search query or the more terms in each document. ---
**Author:** ![Karussell1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/50afbb/32.png) [@Karussell1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Karussell1)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 7:53am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/limit-results-in-query/6202/4 "2011-12-21T07:53:40Z")
> Your comparison of a fuzzy search using a "REALLY LONG..." text query in es > vs. a query by an exact match Thats exactly the point. @Brian: To do an exact string match like in MySql just do not analyze the field and I bet you'll get identical if not better response times. Peter. ---
**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/limit-results-in-query/6202/5 "2017-07-06T03:44:46Z")