# Random sorting **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [November 7, 2011, 1:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/random-sorting/5795 "2011-11-07T13:12:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![1114](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/77aa72/32.png) [@1114](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/1114)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 1:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/random-sorting/5795/1 "2011-11-07T13:12:02Z")
Hello! Is it possible to set up sorting to return items at random based on one of the field? Something like : { "sort" : { { "post\_date" : {"order" : "RANDOM"} }, "user" : { }, "\_score" : { } }, "query" : { "term" : { "user" : "kimchy" } } } Or any other possibilities to get a random responce. Thanks, Andrey. ---
**Author:** ![Karussell1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/50afbb/32.png) [@Karussell1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Karussell1)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 3:44pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/random-sorting/5795/2 "2011-11-07T15:44:42Z")
Try a custom score function with a random seed returned Peter. On Nov 7, 2:12 pm, Андрей Смолев [andrey.smo...@gmail.com](mailto:andrey.smo...@gmail.com) wrote: > Hello! > > Is it possible to set up sorting to return items at random based on one of > the field? > > Something like : > > { > "sort" : { > { "post\_date" : {"order" : "RANDOM"} }, > "user" : { }, > "\_score" : { } > }, > "query" : { > "term" : { "user" : "kimchy" } > } > > } > > Or any other possibilities to get a random responce. > > Thanks, > Andrey. ---
**Author:** ![1114](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/77aa72/32.png) [@1114](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/1114)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 8:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/random-sorting/5795/3 "2011-11-07T20:05:12Z")
Thank you! Looks like an answer! On Nov 7, 2011 6:44 PM, "Karussell" [tableyourtime@googlemail.com](mailto:tableyourtime@googlemail.com) wrote: > Try a custom score function with a random seed returned > > Peter. > > On Nov 7, 2:12 pm, Андрей Смолев [andrey.smo...@gmail.com](mailto:andrey.smo...@gmail.com) wrote: > > > Hello! > > > > Is it possible to set up sorting to return items at random based on one > > of > > the field? > > > > Something like : > > > > { > > "sort" : { > > { "post\_date" : {"order" : "RANDOM"} }, > > "user" : { }, > > "\_score" : { } > > }, > > "query" : { > > "term" : { "user" : "kimchy" } > > } > > > > } > > > > Or any other possibilities to get a random responce. > > > > Thanks, > > Andrey. ---
**Author:** ![Kunal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/kunal/32/3079_2.png) [@Kunal](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Kunal)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 2:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/random-sorting/5795/4 "2011-11-08T02:54:35Z")
Hi Andre, Do you have a code example for this solution? Trying to do the same thing, but not entirely sure what it actually looks like... Thanks! -Kunal On Nov 7, 12:05 pm, Андрей Смолев [andrey.smo...@gmail.com](mailto:andrey.smo...@gmail.com) wrote: > Thank you! Looks like an answer! > On Nov 7, 2011 6:44 PM, "Karussell" [tableyourt...@googlemail.com](mailto:tableyourt...@googlemail.com) wrote: > > > Try a custom score function with a random seed returned > > > Peter. > > > On Nov 7, 2:12 pm, Андрей Смолев [andrey.smo...@gmail.com](mailto:andrey.smo...@gmail.com) wrote: > > > > > Hello! > > > > Is it possible to set up sorting to return items at random based on one > > > of > > > the field? > > > > Something like : > > > > { > > > "sort" : { > > > { "post\_date" : {"order" : "RANDOM"} }, > > > "user" : { }, > > > "\_score" : { } > > > }, > > > "query" : { > > > "term" : { "user" : "kimchy" } > > > } > > > > } > > > > Or any other possibilities to get a random responce. > > > > Thanks, > > > Andrey. ---
**Author:** ![1114](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/77aa72/32.png) [@1114](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/1114)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 10:56am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/random-sorting/5795/5 "2011-11-09T10:56:55Z")
I tried to use custom\_score but i had an syntax error. What do i do wrong? \_search?source={"custom\_score":{{"query":{"query\_string":{"default\_field":"\_all", "default\_operator":"AND","query":"майка~0.7"}},"size":10},"script":"\_score" }} { "error": "SearchPhaseExecutionException[Failed to execute phase [query], total failure; shardFailures {[LS6ki3GCS\_yyziipuYI9Og][vitrina][3]: RemoteTransportException[[Arlok][inet[/10.10.205.24:9300]][search/phase/query]]; nested: SearchParseException[[vitrina][3]: from[-1],size[-1]: Parse Failure [Failed to parse source [{"custom\_score":{{"query":{"query\_string":{"default\_field":"\_all", "default\_operator":"AND","query":"майка~0.7"}},"size":10},"script":"\_score" }}]]]; nested: SearchParseException[[vitrina][3]: from[-1],size[-1]: Parse Failure [No parser for element [custom\_score]]]; }{[Cq6VIo58SQCCjpMay6KrhQ][vitrina][0]: SearchParseException[[vitrina][0]: from[-1],size[-1]: Parse Failure [Failed to parse source [{"custom\_score":{{"query":{"query\_string":{"default\_field":"\_all", "default\_operator":"AND","query":"майка~0.7"}},"size":10},"script":"\_score" }}]]]; nested: SearchParseException[[vitrina][0]: from[-1],size[-1]: Parse Failure [No parser for element [custom\_score]]]; }{[Cq6VIo58SQCCjpMay6KrhQ][vitrina][1]: SearchParseException[[vitrina][1]: from[-1],size[-1]: Parse Failure [Failed to parse source [{"custom\_score":{{"query":{"query\_string":{"default\_field":"\_all", "default\_operator":"AND","query":"майка~0.7"}},"size":10},"script":"\_score" }}]]]; nested: SearchParseException[[vitrina][1]: from[-1],size[-1]: Parse Failure [No parser for element [custom\_score]]]; }{[qqcovTfeRg2mk72Yjf0OIA][vitrina][2]: RemoteTransportException[[Devil Dinosaur][inet[/10.10.205.25:9300]][search/phase/query]]; nested: SearchParseException[[vitrina][2]: from[-1],size[-1]: Parse Failure [Failed to parse source [{"custom\_score":{{"query":{"query\_string":{"default\_field":"\_all", "default\_operator":"AND","query":"майка~0.7"}},"size":10},"script":"\_score" }}]]]; nested: SearchParseException[[vitrina][2]: from[-1],size[-1]: Parse Failure [No parser for element [custom\_score]]]; }{[LS6ki3GCS\_yyziipuYI9Og][vitrina][4]: RemoteTransportException[[Arlok][inet[/10.10.205.24:9300]][search/phase/query]]; nested: SearchParseException[[vitrina][4]: from[-1],size[-1]: Parse Failure [Failed to parse source [{"custom\_score":{{"query":{"query\_string":{"default\_field":"\_all", "default\_operator":"AND","query":"майка~0.7"}},"size":10},"script":"\_score" }}]]]; nested: SearchParseException[[vitrina][4]: from[-1],size[-1]: Parse Failure [No parser for element [custom\_score]]]; }]", "status": 500 } On Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 7:44 PM, Karussell [tableyourtime@googlemail.com](mailto:tableyourtime@googlemail.com)wrote: > Try a custom score function with a random seed returned > > Peter. > > On Nov 7, 2:12 pm, Андрей Смолев [andrey.smo...@gmail.com](mailto:andrey.smo...@gmail.com) wrote: > > > Hello! > > > > Is it possible to set up sorting to return items at random based on one > > of > > the field? > > > > Something like : > > > > { > > "sort" : { > > { "post\_date" : {"order" : "RANDOM"} }, > > "user" : { }, > > "\_score" : { } > > }, > > "query" : { > > "term" : { "user" : "kimchy" } > > } > > > > } > > > > Or any other possibilities to get a random responce. > > > > Thanks, > > Andrey. ---
**Author:** ![Clinton\_Gormley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@Clinton\_Gormley](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Clinton_Gormley)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 11:01am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/random-sorting/5795/6 "2011-11-09T11:01:42Z")
On Wed, 2011-11-09 at 14:56 +0400, Андрей Смолев wrote: > I tried to use custom\_score but i had an syntax error. What do i do > wrong? > > \_search?source={"custom\_score":{{"query":{"query\_string":{"default\_field":"\_all", "default\_operator":"AND","query":"майка~0.7"}},"size":10},"script":"\_score" }} the 'custom\_score' should be wrapped by an outer {query: {...}} clint ---
**Author:** ![1114](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/77aa72/32.png) [@1114](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/1114)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 11:17am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/random-sorting/5795/7 "2011-11-09T11:17:54Z")
Ohh, i see! Here is a working example if anyone is interested: source={"query":{"custom\_score":{"script":"random()\*20","query":{"query\_string":{"default\_field":"\_all", "default\_operator":"AND","query":"майка~0.7"}},"size":10}},"sort":{"\_score":{"order":"desc"}}} On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 3:01 PM, Clinton Gormley [clint@traveljury.com](mailto:clint@traveljury.com)wrote: > On Wed, 2011-11-09 at 14:56 +0400, Андрей Смолев wrote: > > > I tried to use custom\_score but i had an syntax error. What do i do > > wrong? > > \_search?source={"custom\_score":{{"query":{"query\_string":{"default\_field":"\_all", > "default\_operator":"AND","query":"майка~0.7"}},"size":10},"script":"\_score" > }} > > the 'custom\_score' should be wrapped by an outer {query: {...}} > > clint ---
**Author:** ![icenine18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@icenine18](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/icenine18)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 5:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/random-sorting/5795/8 "2011-12-14T17:24:14Z")
I'm trying to do something like this with a match all query...I want a random sampling of my entire record set. Using this custom score script approach to return a subset of 100,000 random records yields a very slow query (minutes) against the data set (~100 million records total). So it must be scanning through all the records before returning the random results... Does anyone know a more efficient way to accomplish this? Thanks. On Nov 9, 6:17 am, Андрей Смолев [andrey.smo...@gmail.com](mailto:andrey.smo...@gmail.com) wrote: > Ohh, i see! > > Here is a working example if anyone is interested: > > source={"query":{"custom\_score":{"script":"random()\*20","query":{"query\_string":{"default\_field":"\_all", > "default\_operator":"AND","query":"майка~0.7"}},"size":10}},"sort":{"\_score":{"order":"desc"}}} > > On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 3:01 PM, Clinton Gormley [cl...@traveljury.com](mailto:cl...@traveljury.com)wrote: > > > On Wed, 2011-11-09 at 14:56 +0400, Андрей Смолев wrote: > > > > > I tried to use custom\_score but i had an syntax error. What do i do > > > wrong? > > > \_search?source={"custom\_score":{{"query":{"query\_string":{"default\_field":"\_all", > > "default\_operator":"AND","query":"майка~0.7"}},"size":10},"script":"\_score" > > }} > > > the 'custom\_score' should be wrapped by an outer {query: {...}} > > > clint ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 3:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/random-sorting/5795/9 "2017-07-06T03:45:23Z")