# Sorting by distance with minimum distance

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-by-distance-with-minimum-distance/104632>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [October 19, 2017, 11:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-by-distance-with-minimum-distance/104632 "2017-10-19T23:38:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lukas-gitl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/lukas-gitl/32/23218_2.png) [@lukas-gitl](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/lukas-gitl)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 11:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-by-distance-with-minimum-distance/104632/1 "2017-10-19T23:38:34Z")

</div>

I'm trying to sort results by distance. Something like this works perfectly:

```auto
_geo_distance: {
  "nested_path": ...,
  "location": [..., ...],
  "order": "asc",
  "unit": "m",
  "mode": "min",
  "distance_type": "sloppy_arc"
}

```

However I would like to use an minimum distance (if under minimum distance all elements should have the same weight in result). So I've tried

```auto
_geo_distance: {
  "nested_path": ...,
  "location": {
    "type": "circle",
    "coordinates": [..., ...],
    "radius": "100m"
  }
  "order": "asc",
  "unit": "m",
  "mode": "min",
  "distance_type": "sloppy_arc"
}

```

But that doesn't seem to work. Is there an easy way to accomplish what I want to do? Do I have to go with scoring?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lukas-gitl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/lukas-gitl/32/23218_2.png) [@lukas-gitl](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/lukas-gitl)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2017, 8:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-by-distance-with-minimum-distance/104632/2 "2017-10-23T20:42:15Z")

</div>

Anyone has an idea?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lukas-gitl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/lukas-gitl/32/23218_2.png) [@lukas-gitl](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/lukas-gitl)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 6:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-by-distance-with-minimum-distance/104632/3 "2017-10-30T18:55:44Z")

</div>

ping

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![abdon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/abdon/32/9195_2.png) [@abdon](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/abdon)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 3:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-by-distance-with-minimum-distance/104632/4 "2017-11-01T15:06:57Z")

</div>

I would go with scoring. The `function_score` query supports decay functions which will allow you to score documents based on a geo distance. These decay functions allow you to define an `offset`, which would be a radius for which documents get a maximum score. Any document with a distance larger than this `offset` will get a lower score, based on how you configure the decay function.

The docs have an example: [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-function-score-query.html#function-decay](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-function-score-query.html#function-decay)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lukas-gitl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/lukas-gitl/32/23218_2.png) [@lukas-gitl](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/lukas-gitl)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2017, 8:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-by-distance-with-minimum-distance/104632/5 "2017-11-07T20:05:34Z")

</div>

Sweet, thank you very much for your reply! I'll hopefully get to implementing this in the next few weeks and will try to post our final solution here.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lukas-gitl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/lukas-gitl/32/23218_2.png) [@lukas-gitl](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/lukas-gitl)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2017, 12:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-by-distance-with-minimum-distance/104632/6 "2017-11-22T00:45:58Z")

</div>

Something like this seems to get the job done:

```auto
      "functions": [
        {
          "exp": {
            "venues.location": {
              "origin": [
                0.5, 
                0.5
              ], 
              "decay": "0.5", 
              "scale": "20km", 
              "offset": "100m"
            }
          }
        },
        ...
      ]

```

This works for nested objects as well if you use include\_in\_root on the nesting.

---

<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:** [December 20, 2017, 12:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-by-distance-with-minimum-distance/104632/7 "2017-12-20T00:46:12Z")

</div>

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