# Question regarding Sorts **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [June 29, 2018, 6:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-regarding-sorts/138018 "2018-06-29T18:05:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![XiaoConstantine](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/xiaoconstantine/32/33092_2.png) [@XiaoConstantine](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/XiaoConstantine)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 6:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-regarding-sorts/138018/1 "2018-06-29T18:05:16Z")
Hello guys! I have a question regarding to sorts, the scenario i have is following: I m creating a list of sort on one field with different custom sorting scripts, so eventually it looks like: sorts: [ script: {}, # sort 1 (Strict match) script: {}, # sort 2 (prefix match) script: {} # sort 3 (more loose condition match) ] The goal i want to achieve is that 1 should be used if could be, otherwise fall back to sort2, sort3. But what i seeing is that even the we have the `exact match` docs based on user's query, the order does not working as I expect, am i not doing it correctly/how should i achieve my goal? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![XiaoConstantine](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/xiaoconstantine/32/33092_2.png) [@XiaoConstantine](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/XiaoConstantine)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 7:25pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-regarding-sorts/138018/2 "2018-07-24T19:25:43Z")
Anyone has insights regarding this question? ---
**Author:** ![ddorian43](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ddorian43/32/36093_2.png) [@ddorian43](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ddorian43)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 5:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-regarding-sorts/138018/3 "2018-07-25T17:27:40Z")
I'm assuming the 3 scripts get's used as 3 fields. Did you try having all the logic into 1 script ? ---
**Author:** ![XiaoConstantine](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/xiaoconstantine/32/33092_2.png) [@XiaoConstantine](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/XiaoConstantine)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 5:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-regarding-sorts/138018/4 "2018-07-25T17:51:57Z")
Hello! Thanks for your response. I haven't tried merging those 3 into one sort yet. Just wondering what's the recommend way to achieve what i described there. What do you mean by get's used as 3 fields? ---
**Author:** ![ddorian43](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ddorian43/32/36093_2.png) [@ddorian43](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ddorian43)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 9:22am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-regarding-sorts/138018/5 "2018-07-26T09:22:45Z")
Paste exact query that you send, what you wrote isn't valid. ---
**Author:** ![XiaoConstantine](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/xiaoconstantine/32/33092_2.png) [@XiaoConstantine](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/XiaoConstantine)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 2:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-regarding-sorts/138018/6 "2018-07-26T14:43:37Z")
sorts: [ \_script: { type: string, script: { lang: painless, source: if (doc[params.fieldName] != null) { def strValue = doc[params.fieldName].value; def lc = strValue.toLowerCase(); if (lc.equals(params.prefix)) { return 0; }}return 1; params: { fieldName: "a" }, } order: asc }, \_script: { type: string, script: { lang: painless, source: if (doc[params.fieldName] != null) { def strValue = doc[params.fieldName].value; def lc = strValue.toLowerCase(); if (lc.startsWith(params.prefix)) { return 0; }}return 1; params: { fieldName: "a" } }, order: asc }, \_script: { type: string, script: { lang: painless, source:def value = '';for (String fieldName : params.fieldNames) { if (doc[fieldName] != null) { if (!value.isEmpty()) { value += ' '; } value += String.valueOf(doc[fieldName].value); }}return value; params: { fieldName: "a" } }, order: asc } ] @ddorian43 Please take a look, the sorting i want to achieve here is that based on doc's field 'a', try exact match first, if not, fall back to prefix, if still not, back to last one ---
**Author:** ![ddorian43](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ddorian43/32/36093_2.png) [@ddorian43](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ddorian43)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 3:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-regarding-sorts/138018/7 "2018-07-26T15:07:54Z")
Please put it inside ```` tags. Try to change it into 1 big script that does conditional return. ---
**Author:** ![XiaoConstantine](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/xiaoconstantine/32/33092_2.png) [@XiaoConstantine](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/XiaoConstantine)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 3:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-regarding-sorts/138018/8 "2018-07-26T15:19:23Z")
Could you explain why this one doesn't work? is it because the later sort override the previous one? ---
**Author:** ![XiaoConstantine](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/xiaoconstantine/32/33092_2.png) [@XiaoConstantine](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/XiaoConstantine)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 3:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-regarding-sorts/138018/9 "2018-07-26T15:20:35Z")
And apologies for not formatting, trying to get use to this ---
**Author:** ![ddorian43](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ddorian43/32/36093_2.png) [@ddorian43](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ddorian43)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 4:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-regarding-sorts/138018/10 "2018-07-26T16:04:13Z")
read how `sort` works on documentation. See `nulls first/last` and `missing`. Basically it sorts by 3 values together. So they are always sorted by `script` then `script2` then `script3`. ---
**Author:** ![XiaoConstantine](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/xiaoconstantine/32/33092_2.png) [@XiaoConstantine](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/XiaoConstantine)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 6:18pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-regarding-sorts/138018/11 "2018-07-26T18:18:27Z")
@ddorian43 I see, so it behaves in an overriding fashion now. I will try to merge those 3 scripts into one and give it a shot. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 6:18pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-regarding-sorts/138018/12 "2018-08-23T18:18:32Z")
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