# Parse Array and Send to Elastic Filter
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parse-array-and-send-to-elastic-filter/306271
**Category:** Logstash
**Created:** [June 2, 2022, 8:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parse-array-and-send-to-elastic-filter/306271 "2022-06-02T20:39:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@JeremyP](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/JeremyP)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2022, 8:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parse-array-and-send-to-elastic-filter/306271/1 "2022-06-02T20:39:26Z")
Hello,
I have an array of strings which I'd like to send nested object to an Elasticsearch filter to obtain additional data in a separately stored index. I've been searching for an approach to this but I cannot seem to find an example. I'm comfortable with creating the Elasticsearch filter, but I'm trying to determine a way to pull out each value from the array to send to the filter. I've looked at a Ruby filter, but I don't see how I can create the ES filter within that block of code.
Here is my sample data...
```auto
"categories": [
"Red Hat",
"Red Hat Enterprise Linux",
"Remote Execution"
]
```
Each category individually gets sent to the ES filter.
Thank you for any guidance you can offer.
---
### Author:  [@Badger](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Badger)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2022, 9:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parse-array-and-send-to-elastic-filter/306271/2 "2022-06-02T21:00:52Z")
Perhaps use a [split](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/logstash/current/plugins-filters-split.html) filter, so that instead of an event with an array you have three events in which [categories] is a string. It is really not clear what you want to do.
If there is a limit to the number of categories then you might also be able to do
```
if [categories][0] { elasticsearch { query => "someField: %{[categories][0]}" ... } }
if [categories][1] { elasticsearch { query => "someField: %{[categories][1]}" ... } }
if [categories][2] { elasticsearch { query => "someField: %{[categories][2]}" ... } }
if [categories][3] { elasticsearch { query => "someField: %{[categories][3]}" ... } }
```
---
### Author:  [@JeremyP](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/JeremyP)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2022, 12:54pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parse-array-and-send-to-elastic-filter/306271/3 "2022-06-03T12:54:23Z")
This is exactly what I wanted. I wasn't sure if there were a better method to parse through the array vs having to define each array position. There should only be about 5 or 6 categories.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2022, 12:54pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parse-array-and-send-to-elastic-filter/306271/4 "2022-07-01T12:54:44Z")
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