# Regexp in searching for aliases

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/regexp-in-searching-for-aliases/117269>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [January 26, 2018, 9:22pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/regexp-in-searching-for-aliases/117269 "2018-01-26T21:22:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![m.hashemian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@m.hashemian](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/m.hashemian)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 9:22pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/regexp-in-searching-for-aliases/117269/1 "2018-01-26T21:22:57Z")

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Hi,

I have multiple indices and each index has multiple aliases. Is there a way to search for aliases using regexp?

For example, I can use this query:

curl -XGET 'localhost:9200/\_alias/2016\*?pretty'

to get all aliases starting with 2016, but if I want to get all aliases starting with 2016 and 2017 (but not 2015 or 2018), how could I achieve this? I tried different variations of this:

curl -XGET 'localhost:9200/\_alias/2016\*|2017\*?pretty'

but it did not work.

Thanks a lot

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**Author:** ![nik9000](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/nik9000/32/44947_2.png) [@nik9000](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nik9000)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 9:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/regexp-in-searching-for-aliases/117269/2 "2018-01-26T21:40:54Z")

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Regular expressions aren't supported. You can only use the glob style thing. This is what implements it:

> <https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/blob/master/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/regex/Regex.java#L79>

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![m.hashemian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@m.hashemian](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/m.hashemian)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 9:44pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/regexp-in-searching-for-aliases/117269/3 "2018-01-26T21:44:38Z")

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I suspected that's the case. Do you know any other way to query aliases with one request (like search)? I can send multiple requests (e.g. one for 2016\*, one for 2017\*, etc) but I hoped to find a better way.

Thanks

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![m.hashemian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@m.hashemian](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/m.hashemian)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 11:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/regexp-in-searching-for-aliases/117269/4 "2018-01-26T23:07:27Z")

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I actually ended up using the [Client API for JavaScript](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/javascript-api/current/api-reference.html#api-indices-getalias) for this. That allows using a comma-separated list of alias names. It still does not support regexp, as you said @nik9000, but it allows using "2016\*,2017\*" which serves my purpose.

Thanks

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**Author:** ![mayya](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mayya/32/83147_2.png) [@mayya](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mayya)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2018, 6:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/regexp-in-searching-for-aliases/117269/5 "2018-01-29T18:59:45Z")

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If you want to search multiple aliases' patterns using Elastic http api, you can also try to separate them using comma. For example:

`curl -XGET 'localhost:9200/_alias/2016*,2017*'`

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![m.hashemian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@m.hashemian](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/m.hashemian)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/regexp-in-searching-for-aliases/117269/6 "2018-01-30T14:08:51Z")

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Ah, yes, you are right @mayya. That worked. Thanks.

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<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:** [February 27, 2018, 2:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/regexp-in-searching-for-aliases/117269/7 "2018-02-27T14:12:12Z")

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