# Query multi value field, to match all values passed in

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-multi-value-field-to-match-all-values-passed-in/54483>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [July 1, 2016, 12:05am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-multi-value-field-to-match-all-values-passed-in/54483 "2016-07-01T00:05:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lahiru.m](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e36b37/32.png) [@lahiru.m](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/lahiru.m)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2016, 12:05am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-multi-value-field-to-match-all-values-passed-in/54483/1 "2016-07-01T00:05:28Z")

</div>

Hi All,

I have data in elasticsearch with the mapping for an index type entity that looks like the following.  
The value for the field "codes" would be a list of comma separated strings

```
"mappings": {
    "entity": {
      "properties": {
        "id": {
          "type": "long"
        },
        "name": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "description": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "codes": {
          "type": "string"
        }
      }
    }
  }

```

The data returned by a search query for a entities would look like  
hits: [  
{  
...  
"\_source": {  
id: "23"  
name: "John"  
description: "some description"  
codes: [  
"10", "15", "16", "21", "34"  
]  
}  
},  
{  
...  
"\_source": {  
id: "43"  
name: "Jane"  
description: "another description"  
codes: [  
"10", "31", "34", "41", "56"  
]  
}  
},  
{  
...  
"\_source": {  
id: "43"  
name: "Jim"  
description: "another description"  
codes: [  
"10", "34", "55", "67", "89"  
]  
}  
}  
]

Now the problem I am facing is that, I need to query for this data, passing in a list of codes, as a parameter, so that each entity returned contains **ALL** the codes that are passed in.

Initially I was using the terms query, as it seemed like a compact way to query if there list of codes was long.

```
GET index/entity/_search
{
  "from" : 0,
  "size" : 10,
  "query" : {
    "filtered" : {
      "query" : {
        "bool" : {
        "must" : [        
           {
             "terms": {
               "codes": ["10", "34", "89"]
             }
           }
         ]
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

```

Unfortunately, this was incorrect, as the terms query will match all the entities which have at least one of the  
provided codes in the list (John, Jane & Jim)

Then I moved to the following approach:

```
GET index/entity/_search
{
  "from" : 0,
  "size" : 10,
  "query" : {
    "filtered" : {
      "query" : {
        "bool" : {
          "must" : [ 
             {"term": {
                "codes": "10"
             }},
             {"term": {
                "codes": "34"
             }},
             {"term": {
                "codes": "89"
             }
          } ]
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

```

This works fine, and returns only entities with all 3 codes (Jim), but I am concerned that if I have to search for entities that contain say 20 codes, this would make the query quite long, and duplicate the "term": {"codes" : "xx"} clause multiple times.

Is there a more elegant solution for this? Preferably something like using the terms query, but to match all values in the list.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![spinscale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/spinscale/32/25011_2.png) [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2016, 8:12am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-multi-value-field-to-match-all-values-passed-in/54483/2 "2016-07-04T08:12:44Z")

</div>

Hey,

indeed this the only way, however dont be afraid of a long query. If a long query gets you the results you want, all is good. Also the terms query is rewritten kind of the same queries that are generated by your code (only must instead of just).

Minor tweak: put the term query into the `filter` path instead of the `must` path of bool query, as you dont have a need for scoring here I'd guess. See [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-bool-query.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-bool-query.html)

--Alex

---

<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:** [July 5, 2017, 10:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-multi-value-field-to-match-all-values-passed-in/54483/3 "2017-07-05T22:38:34Z")

</div>