# Sorting on a boolean field **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [January 5, 2015, 10:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-on-a-boolean-field/21491 "2015-01-05T22:09:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mbaker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mbaker](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mbaker)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 10:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-on-a-boolean-field/21491/1 "2015-01-05T22:09:10Z")
I would like to sort the results of a query such that all of the records with a value of true in the expires field will be at the top. I am not using relevance for sorting. I tried adding this as a sort, but it doesn't seem to work with either sorting order: { expires: { order: "desc" } } All of the records are in the result but they aren't sorted. Is there a different way I should be going about this? For reference, here is my entire query: { "query": { "match\_all": { } }, "size": 50, "from": 0, "fields": [ "id" ], "sort": [ { "expires": { "order": "desc" } } ] } -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0bfc5579-8855-44a8-97e3-58ede3bb10d4%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0bfc5579-8855-44a8-97e3-58ede3bb10d4%40googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 6:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-on-a-boolean-field/21491/2 "2015-01-06T06:34:44Z")
I think sorting on boolean should work. If you can't make it working, you could also use function\_score to "boost" expires:true vs expires:false. HTH -- David 😉 Twitter : @dadoonet / @elasticsearchfr / @scrutmydocs > Le 5 janv. 2015 à 23:09, [mbaker@trunkclub.com](mailto:mbaker@trunkclub.com) a écrit : > > I would like to sort the results of a query such that all of the records with a value of true in the expires field will be at the top. I am not using relevance for sorting. I tried adding this as a sort, but it doesn't seem to work with either sorting order: { expires: { order: "desc" } } > > All of the records are in the result but they aren't sorted. Is there a different way I should be going about this? > > For reference, here is my entire query: > > ## { "query": { "match\_all": { } }, "size": 50, "from": 0, "fields": ["id"], "sort": [{ "expires": { "order": "desc" } }] } > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0bfc5579-8855-44a8-97e3-58ede3bb10d4%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0bfc5579-8855-44a8-97e3-58ede3bb10d4%40googlegroups.com). > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/BB982DA5-E7BF-4E23-AC76-CDC2C10CDE7B%40pilato.fr](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/BB982DA5-E7BF-4E23-AC76-CDC2C10CDE7B%40pilato.fr). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). ---
**Author:** ![Joao\_Nelas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/joao_nelas/32/1014_2.png) [@Joao\_Nelas](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Joao_Nelas)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-on-a-boolean-field/21491/3 "2015-01-11T16:40:40Z")
No, I don't think sorting on booleans works. At least I've had no luck with it. On Tuesday, January 6, 2015 at 6:34:52 AM UTC, David Pilato wrote: > I think sorting on boolean should work. > > If you can't make it working, you could also use function\_score to "boost" > expires:true vs expires:false. > > HTH > > -- > David 😉 > Twitter : @dadoonet / @elasticsearchfr / @scrutmydocs > > Le 5 janv. 2015 à 23:09, [mba...@trunkclub.com](mailto:mba...@trunkclub.com) \ a écrit : > > I would like to sort the results of a query such that all of the records > with a value of true in the expires field will be at the top. I am not > using relevance for sorting. I tried adding this as a sort, but it doesn't > seem to work with either sorting order: { expires: { order: "desc" } } > > All of the records are in the result but they aren't sorted. Is there a > different way I should be going about this? > > For reference, here is my entire query: > > { > "query": { > "match\_all": { > } > }, > "size": 50, > "from": 0, > "fields": [ > "id" > ], > "sort": [ > { > "expires": { > "order": "desc" > } > } > ] > } > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "elasticsearch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [elasticsearc...@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearc...@googlegroups.com) \. > To view this discussion on the web visit > [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0bfc5579-8855-44a8-97e3-58ede3bb10d4%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0bfc5579-8855-44a8-97e3-58ede3bb10d4%40googlegroups.com) > [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0bfc5579-8855-44a8-97e3-58ede3bb10d4%40googlegroups.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0bfc5579-8855-44a8-97e3-58ede3bb10d4%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer) > . > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/68ead506-a232-43ba-9f16-b5d933132de7%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/68ead506-a232-43ba-9f16-b5d933132de7%40googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 8:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-on-a-boolean-field/21491/4 "2015-01-12T08:44:19Z")
I just tried this with elasticsearch 1.4.2: DELETE test PUT test/doc/1 { "foo": true } PUT test/doc/2 { "foo": false } # Gives doc 2 first GET test/\_search { "sort": [ { "foo": { "order": "asc" } } ] } # Gives doc 1 first GET test/\_search { "sort": [ { "foo": { "order": "desc" } } ] } -- David Pilato | Technical Advocate | [Elasticsearch.com](http://Elasticsearch.com) @dadoonet [https://twitter.com/dadoonet](https://twitter.com/dadoonet) | @elasticsearchfr [https://twitter.com/elasticsearchfr](https://twitter.com/elasticsearchfr) | @scrutmydocs [https://twitter.com/scrutmydocs](https://twitter.com/scrutmydocs) > Le 11 janv. 2015 à 17:40, Joao Nelas [joao.nelas@gmail.com](mailto:joao.nelas@gmail.com) a écrit : > > No, I don't think sorting on booleans works. At least I've had no luck with it. > > On Tuesday, January 6, 2015 at 6:34:52 AM UTC, David Pilato wrote: > I think sorting on boolean should work. > > If you can't make it working, you could also use function\_score to "boost" expires:true vs expires:false. > > HTH > > -- > David 😉 > Twitter : @dadoonet / @elasticsearchfr / @scrutmydocs > > Le 5 janv. 2015 à 23:09, [mba...@trunkclub.com](mailto:mba...@trunkclub.com) \ a écrit : > > > I would like to sort the results of a query such that all of the records with a value of true in the expires field will be at the top. I am not using relevance for sorting. I tried adding this as a sort, but it doesn't seem to work with either sorting order: { expires: { order: "desc" } } > > > > All of the records are in the result but they aren't sorted. Is there a different way I should be going about this? > > > > For reference, here is my entire query: > > > > { > > "query": { > > "match\_all": { > > } > > }, > > "size": 50, > > "from": 0, > > "fields": [ > > "id" > > ], > > "sort": [ > > { > > "expires": { > > "order": "desc" > > } > > } > > ] > > } > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearc...@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearc...@googlegroups.com) \. > > To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0bfc5579-8855-44a8-97e3-58ede3bb10d4%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0bfc5579-8855-44a8-97e3-58ede3bb10d4%40googlegroups.com) [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0bfc5579-8855-44a8-97e3-58ede3bb10d4%40googlegroups.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0bfc5579-8855-44a8-97e3-58ede3bb10d4%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer). > > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout) [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com) [mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/68ead506-a232-43ba-9f16-b5d933132de7%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/68ead506-a232-43ba-9f16-b5d933132de7%40googlegroups.com) [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/68ead506-a232-43ba-9f16-b5d933132de7%40googlegroups.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/68ead506-a232-43ba-9f16-b5d933132de7%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer). > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout) [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/998FB640-5163-4426-8911-5FB705B3D857%40pilato.fr](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/998FB640-5163-4426-8911-5FB705B3D857%40pilato.fr). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). ---
**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, 12:39am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sorting-on-a-boolean-field/21491/5 "2017-07-06T00:39:36Z")