# Query Returns X, DELETE deletes less documents

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-returns-x-delete-deletes-less-documents/69882>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [December 23, 2016, 7:33am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-returns-x-delete-deletes-less-documents/69882 "2016-12-23T07:33:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Marc\_Cawood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Marc\_Cawood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Marc_Cawood)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 7:33am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-returns-x-delete-deletes-less-documents/69882/1 "2016-12-23T07:33:05Z")

</div>

I want to delete all documents with a specified `category`.

I can find 107 documents with:

```auto
POST /myb-all/access/_search?pretty
{
  "query": { "match": { "category": "Hit" } }
}

```

Which returns:

```auto
{
  "took": 1,
  "timed_out": false,
  "_shards": {
    "total": 5,
    "successful": 5,
    "failed": 0
  },
  "hits": {
    "total": 107,
    "max_score": null,
    "hits": [
      {
...

```

But DELETE doesn't delete them:

```auto
DELETE /myb-all/access/_search?pretty
{
  "query": { "match": { "category": "Hit" } }
}

```

It returns:

```auto
{
  "found": false,
  "_index": "myb-all",
  "_type": "access",
  "_id": "_search",
  "_version": 1,
  "result": "not_found",
  "_shards": {
    "total": 2,
    "successful": 1,
    "failed": 0
  }
}

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 8:10am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-returns-x-delete-deletes-less-documents/69882/2 "2016-12-23T08:10:50Z")

</div>

Wrong syntax. See [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/5.1/docs-delete-by-query.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/5.1/docs-delete-by-query.html)

\_search is not correct here.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Marc\_Cawood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Marc\_Cawood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Marc_Cawood)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 8:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-returns-x-delete-deletes-less-documents/69882/3 "2016-12-23T08:45:30Z")

</div>

Thanks! There sure are a lotta examples out there.

So, for v5 it's:

```auto
POST myindex/mytype/_delete_by_query
{
  "query": { "match": { "myfield": "myvalue" } }
}

```

---

<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:** [January 20, 2017, 8:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-returns-x-delete-deletes-less-documents/69882/4 "2017-01-20T08:45:58Z")

</div>

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