# Sorting of numeric 'null' fields **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [March 11, 2011, 2:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-of-numeric-null-fields/4082 "2011-03-11T14:43:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jan\_Fiedler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jan_fiedler/32/2518_2.png) [@Jan\_Fiedler](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Jan_Fiedler)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 2:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-of-numeric-null-fields/4082/1 "2011-03-11T14:43:09Z")
When sorting results by a numeric (integer) field I noticed that documents with missing values are sorted as if the value would be numeric 0. Is this intended behavior? I know that I can provide a default value to be indexed as part of the mapping definition. However, without such a mapping the default behavior is not to add the field at all (this is what the doc says and what I want). What I need from a business prospective is that documents with 'null' values for the sort field are always at the end of the sorted result (independent of sort order). I kind of remember this to be referred to as 'sortMissingLast' in the Lucene / SOLR community. ---
**Author:** ![kimchy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/kimchy/32/44952_2.png) [@kimchy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kimchy)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 8:05am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-of-numeric-null-fields/4082/2 "2011-03-12T08:05:47Z")
Yes, thats the current behavior. This can be added quite easily, care to open an issue for htis? On Friday, March 11, 2011 at 4:43 PM, Jan Fiedler wrote: > When sorting results by a numeric (integer) field I noticed that > documents with missing values are sorted as if the value would be > numeric 0. Is this intended behavior? I know that I can provide a > default value to be indexed as part of the mapping definition. > However, without such a mapping the default behavior is not to add the > field at all (this is what the doc says and what I want). What I need > from a business prospective is that documents with 'null' values for > the sort field are always at the end of the sorted result (independent > of sort order). I kind of remember this to be referred to as > 'sortMissingLast' in the Lucene / SOLR community. ---
**Author:** ![Jan\_Fiedler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jan_fiedler/32/2518_2.png) [@Jan\_Fiedler](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Jan_Fiedler)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 12:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-of-numeric-null-fields/4082/3 "2011-03-12T12:21:54Z")
Filed enhancement request: [Sort: Support "missing" specific handling, include \_last, \_first, and custom value (for numeric values) · Issue #772 · elastic/elasticsearch · GitHub](https://github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch/issues/772) Looking forward to it ... 😉 On Mar 12, 9:05 am, Shay Banon [shay.ba...@elasticsearch.com](mailto:shay.ba...@elasticsearch.com) wrote: > Yes, thats the current behavior. This can be added quite easily, care to open an issue for htis? > > On Friday, March 11, 2011 at 4:43 PM, Jan Fiedler wrote: > > > When sorting results by a numeric (integer) field I noticed that > > documents with missing values are sorted as if the value would be > > numeric 0. Is this intended behavior? I know that I can provide a > > default value to be indexed as part of the mapping definition. > > However, without such a mapping the default behavior is not to add the > > field at all (this is what the doc says and what I want). What I need > > from a business prospective is that documents with 'null' values for > > the sort field are always at the end of the sorted result (independent > > of sort order). I kind of remember this to be referred to as > > 'sortMissingLast' in the Lucene / SOLR community. ---
**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, 4:10am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-of-numeric-null-fields/4082/4 "2017-07-06T04:10:13Z")