# Painless script loop maximum number of statements limit

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/painless-script-loop-maximum-number-of-statements-limit/70895>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [January 8, 2017, 7:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/painless-script-loop-maximum-number-of-statements-limit/70895 "2017-01-08T19:48:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![psu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/cc9497/32.png) [@psu](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/psu)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 7:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/painless-script-loop-maximum-number-of-statements-limit/70895/1 "2017-01-08T19:48:33Z")

</div>

Hi there

I'm using painless script in update\_by\_query to loop through nested array field like this

```auto
if( !ctx._source.containsKey("ARRAY_FIELD") ){ctx._source.ARRAY_FIELD=[];}
for( int i = 0; i < ctx._source.ARRAY_FIELD.size(); i ++ )
{
  if( ctx._source.ARRAY_FIELD[i].KEY == VALUE)
  {
    ctx._source.ARRAY_FIELD[i].FIELD1++;
    if( ctx._source.ARRAY_FIELD[i].FIELD1 > 0 )
    {
      ctx._source.ARRAY_FIELD[i].FIELD3=(double)ctx._source.ARRAY_FIELD[i].FIELD2 / ctx._source.ARRAY_FIELD[i].FIELD1;
    }
    found=1;
    break;
  }
}

```

update\_by\_query query is simple as {query:{ids:[1,2,3,4,5,6,7]}}  
Each document's ARRAY\_FIELD size is not bigger than 2500 items.

Sometimes I get error "The maximum number of statements that can be executed in a loop has been reached.". What is that limit and how can I increase it? Or maybe there is something wrong with my script?

Thanks

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nik9000](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/nik9000/32/44947_2.png) [@nik9000](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nik9000)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 8:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/painless-script-loop-maximum-number-of-statements-limit/70895/2 "2017-01-08T20:10:32Z")

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The limit is [10000](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/blob/master/modules/lang-painless/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/painless/CompilerSettings.java#L53). I'll figure out how to change it in a minute, but unless you have a _ton_ of fields or you are doing a lot in each loop it probably means you have some issue with the loop.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nik9000](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/nik9000/32/44947_2.png) [@nik9000](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nik9000)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 8:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/painless-script-loop-maximum-number-of-statements-limit/70895/3 "2017-01-08T20:15:32Z")

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It looks like the way to change it is:

```auto
POST test/test/1/_update
{
  "script": {
    "inline": "int j = 0; for (int i = 0; i++; i < 5) {j++} return j",
    "options": {
      "max_loop_counter": 10 <---- this
    }
  }
}

```

But that doesn't work because it isn't allowed. So I'm fairly sure changing it isn't supported. I _thought_ it was though....

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![psu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/cc9497/32.png) [@psu](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/psu)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 9:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/painless-script-loop-maximum-number-of-statements-limit/70895/4 "2017-01-08T21:24:22Z")

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Thanks for reply. I've edited my question with more details about the loop and query

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nik9000](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/nik9000/32/44947_2.png) [@nik9000](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nik9000)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 10:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/painless-script-loop-maximum-number-of-statements-limit/70895/5 "2017-01-08T22:40:57Z")

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Yeah, I could see that getting to the limit. I think it might be worth filing an issue on github about it - specifically mentioning that you are doing \_update\_by\_query instead of search. 2500 is rather a lot of entries in an array to be examining at search time but ought to be fine for update\_by\_query.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 10:41pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/painless-script-loop-maximum-number-of-statements-limit/70895/6 "2017-02-05T22:41:11Z")

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