# Must\_not exists Query not Working Correctly
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/must-not-exists-query-not-working-correctly/70157
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [December 28, 2016, 7:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/must-not-exists-query-not-working-correctly/70157 "2016-12-28T19:24:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@krmathieu](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/krmathieu)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2016, 7:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/must-not-exists-query-not-working-correctly/70157/1 "2016-12-28T19:24:26Z")
I am running the following query against the count end point trying to get a count of all of the documents where the hq field is either missing or empty and I am getting a count of zero back even though I know there are lots of records where there is no value for hq:
{
"query": {
"bool": {
"must\_not": {
"exists": {
"field": hq
}
}
}
}
}
In my index it appears that the hq field is present whether or not the field is actually populated and I see stuff like this :
......,
"hq": "",
......., etc
I thought that the must\_not exists type of query would find documents where the field was outright missing OR empty, is that not the case? How can I get this query to work correctly? Do I need to reindex and treat the hq field differently? Right now it is just a string. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Kevin
---
### Author:  [@xavierfacq](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/xavierfacq)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2016, 8:25pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/must-not-exists-query-not-working-correctly/70157/2 "2016-12-28T20:25:38Z")
Doc says :
```
Exists Query
Returns documents that have at least one non-null value in the original field:
An empty string is a non-null value.
```
So I'll say that you have to set "null" as value or default value in your mapping.
---
### Author:  [@krmathieu](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/krmathieu)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2016, 8:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/must-not-exists-query-not-working-correctly/70157/3 "2016-12-28T20:39:28Z")
Ok, got it. Thanks for the clarification and suggestion.
Kevin
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2017, 8:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/must-not-exists-query-not-working-correctly/70157/4 "2017-01-25T20:39:40Z")
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