# Simple\_query\_string check if field exists
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/simple-query-string-check-if-field-exists/196106
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [August 21, 2019, 12:17pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/simple-query-string-check-if-field-exists/196106 "2019-08-21T12:17:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ennui](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ennui)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2019, 12:17pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/simple-query-string-check-if-field-exists/196106/1 "2019-08-21T12:17:41Z")
Hi,
How would I use simple\_query\_string to check if a field exists? For example, say if I had the following documents
PUT test\_index/\_doc/1
{
"user" : "test",
"message" : "a"
}
PUT test\_index/\_doc/2
{
"user" : "test",
"message" : "b"
}
PUT test\_index/\_doc/3
{
"user" : "test",
"message" : "c"
}
PUT test\_index/\_doc/4
{
"user" : "test"
}
How do I query for documents where (message = "a" OR "b") OR (message field doesn't exist). The query should return documents 1, 2 and 4. I realise this is trivial with
"must\_not": {
"exists": {
"field": "message"
}
}
but I need to perform this with simple\_query\_string.
---
### Author:  [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2019, 2:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/simple-query-string-check-if-field-exists/196106/2 "2019-08-21T14:00:23Z")
the query string query supports `_exists_:` as a syntax, but the simple query string does not IIRC.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2019, 2:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/simple-query-string-check-if-field-exists/196106/3 "2019-09-18T14:00:26Z")
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