# Terms Agg **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [March 5, 2019, 6:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966 "2019-03-05T18:03:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aniaks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac8455/32.png) [@aniaks](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/aniaks)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 6:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/1 "2019-03-05T18:03:25Z")
When running a Terms Aggregation query setting min\_doc\_count: 0 doesn't return terms with no values with zero. is there anything that needs to be checked. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood/32/10538_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 6:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/2 "2019-03-05T18:36:39Z")
We only gather the values for matching docs. If you want to get aggregations on values in docs other than just those that match your query see the ‘global’ aggregation for a broader scope ---
**Author:** ![aniaks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac8455/32.png) [@aniaks](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/aniaks)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 6:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/3 "2019-03-05T18:40:54Z")
My understanding from the documentation is that when min\_doc\_count is set to 0 - all the terms in the search range will be returned even if that term do not have any documents in that range... Is my understanding right ? I am not sure if i am missing something. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood/32/10538_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 6:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/4 "2019-03-05T18:45:36Z")
My bad. You’re right. It should return non-matching terms but subject to the ‘size’ restriction for how many terms to bring back (default 10) ---
**Author:** ![aniaks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac8455/32.png) [@aniaks](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/aniaks)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 7:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/5 "2019-03-05T19:12:04Z")
My size is 15, Behavior is like below 1. For a given time in a time range i am getting 3 terms with 0, 2. For another time in a time range i am getting 5 terms with 0 3 Another time in a time range i am getting 2 terms with 0 with min\_doc\_count - we should be getting the same number of terms for all the time in a given range. is there anything should i check as to why the terms returned are not same for all time in the searched time range ? ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood/32/10538_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 7:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/6 "2019-03-05T19:27:04Z")
How many non-zero-count terms do you get in each of those ranges? It might be that they are more competitive choices for making up your top 15 ---
**Author:** ![aniaks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac8455/32.png) [@aniaks](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/aniaks)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 7:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/7 "2019-03-05T19:29:49Z")
I am supposed to get 5 terms all the time, non zero terms varies depending on the time in the given range. May i know what is the impact of size in this behavior ? I am not clear on that part In all of them max 1 or 2 are the non-zero terms ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood/32/10538_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 8:25pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/8 "2019-03-05T20:25:33Z")
I think I need to see some JSON to make requests/responses clearer ---
**Author:** ![aniaks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac8455/32.png) [@aniaks](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/aniaks)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 2:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/9 "2019-03-06T14:59:46Z")
For the below request ```auto "query": { "match_all": {} }, "size": 0, "aggs" : { "sales_per_month" : { "date_histogram" : { "field" : "timestamp", "interval" : "month" }, "aggs": { "tags": { "terms": { "field": "tags" } } } } } ``` Response is like below ```auto "took": 2, "timed_out": false, "_shards": { "total": 5, "successful": 5, "failed": 0 }, "hits": { "total": 11, "max_score": 0, "hits": [] }, "aggregations": { "sales_per_month": { "buckets": [ { "key_as_string": "2016-01-01T00:00:00.000Z", "key": 1451606400000, "doc_count": 5, "tags": { "doc_count_error_upper_bound": 0, "sum_other_doc_count": 0, "buckets": [ { "key": "blue", "doc_count": 3 }, { "key": "green", "doc_count": 2 }, { "key": "red", "doc_count": 1 } ] } }, { "key_as_string": "2016-02-01T00:00:00.000Z", "key": 1454284800000, "doc_count": 5, "tags": { "doc_count_error_upper_bound": 0, "sum_other_doc_count": 0, "buckets": [ { "key": "green", "doc_count": 4 }, { "key": "red", "doc_count": 1 } ] } }, { "key_as_string": "2016-03-01T00:00:00.000Z", "key": 1456790400000, "doc_count": 1, "tags": { "doc_count_error_upper_bound": 0, "sum_other_doc_count": 0, "buckets": [ { "key": "blue", "doc_count": 1 } ] } } ] } } } ``` In the above response for response key "1456790400000" i am expecting "Green" & "RED" also in the bucket with value as zero. But i am getting only "Blue" with Value "1" .... Also for response key "1454284800000" i need "BLUE" in the buckets with "0" Precisely i want all the colors in the buckets returned with "0" even if they are not present. Please let me know if any way we could achieve this ? ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood/32/10538_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 3:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/10 "2019-03-06T15:52:49Z")
> [@aniaks](#): > > Please let me know if any way we could achieve this ? Add `"min_doc_count":0` to the terms agg? ---
**Author:** ![aniaks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac8455/32.png) [@aniaks](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/aniaks)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 4:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/11 "2019-03-06T16:09:22Z")
In spite of adding min\_doc\_count - I am not getting the intended results. Let me know if something is missing .... ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood/32/10538_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 4:11pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/12 "2019-03-06T16:11:40Z")
Working here on 6.6.0: Setup: ```auto DELETE test PUT test { "settings": { "number_of_shards": 1, "number_of_replicas": 0 }, "mappings": { "_doc":{ "properties":{ "timestamp":{ "type":"date" }, "tags":{ "type":"keyword" } } } } } POST test/_doc/1 { "timestamp":"2016-02-01T00:00:00.000Z", "tags" : ["green", "red"] } POST test/_doc/2 { "timestamp":"2016-03-01T00:00:00.000Z", "tags" : ["blue"] } POST test/_search { "query": { "match_all": {} }, "size": 0, "aggs": { "sales_per_month": { "date_histogram": { "field": "timestamp", "interval": "month" }, "aggs": { "tags": { "terms": { "field": "tags", "min_doc_count": 0 } } } } } } ``` Response: ```auto { "took" : 94, "timed_out" : false, "_shards" : { "total" : 1, "successful" : 1, "skipped" : 0, "failed" : 0 }, "hits" : { "total" : 2, "max_score" : 0.0, "hits" : [] }, "aggregations" : { "sales_per_month" : { "buckets" : [ { "key_as_string" : "2016-02-01T00:00:00.000Z", "key" : 1454284800000, "doc_count" : 1, "tags" : { "doc_count_error_upper_bound" : 0, "sum_other_doc_count" : 0, "buckets" : [ { "key" : "green", "doc_count" : 1 }, { "key" : "red", "doc_count" : 1 }, { "key" : "blue", "doc_count" : 0 } ] } }, { "key_as_string" : "2016-03-01T00:00:00.000Z", "key" : 1456790400000, "doc_count" : 1, "tags" : { "doc_count_error_upper_bound" : 0, "sum_other_doc_count" : 0, "buckets" : [ { "key" : "blue", "doc_count" : 1 }, { "key" : "green", "doc_count" : 0 }, { "key" : "red", "doc_count" : 0 } ] } } ] } } } ``` ---
**Author:** ![aniaks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac8455/32.png) [@aniaks](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/aniaks)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 12:30am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/13 "2019-03-15T00:30:52Z")
I tried this in the application where there are millions of docs. Inspite of setting min-doc-count to 0 , the terms with no docs are not returned with zero. Would be great if you could let me know under what conditions this could happen ? Thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood/32/10538_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 11:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/14 "2019-03-15T11:04:38Z")
> [@aniaks](#): > > Would be great if you could let me know under what conditions this could happen ? Maybe you have a lot of competing terms and `size` or `shard_size` settings that aren't high enough to consider all the values that should be returned? ---
**Author:** ![aniaks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac8455/32.png) [@aniaks](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/aniaks)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 1:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/15 "2019-03-15T13:38:14Z")
the field we are trying to do term aggregation It has high cardinality around 4200. If that would cause any impact , what should be the approach to handle this situation ? ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood/32/10538_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 1:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/16 "2019-03-15T13:48:57Z")
> [@aniaks](#): > > what should be the approach to handle this situation ? Increase the `shard_size` as per the [guidance in the docs](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/search-aggregations-bucket-terms-aggregation.html#_shard_size_3). However, consider how much data you're asking for if you're nesting the `terms` agg under a `date_histogram` as per your example as the number of results becomes 4,200 x numberOfDateBuckets. ---
**Author:** ![aniaks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac8455/32.png) [@aniaks](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/aniaks)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 3:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/17 "2019-03-18T15:05:43Z")
shardsize by default is same as Size. I tried this and still the same issue. Let me know if anything i need to check why this issue is happening only when there is high cardinality ? ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood/32/10538_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 3:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/18 "2019-03-18T15:20:47Z")
> [@aniaks](#): > > shardsize by default is same as Size. I tried this and still the same issue. I'm unclear - what numbers did you set for `shard_size` . and `size`? ---
**Author:** ![aniaks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac8455/32.png) [@aniaks](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/aniaks)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 3:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/19 "2019-03-18T15:40:00Z")
shard\_size and size both were set to 500 ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood/32/10538_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 3:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966/20 "2019-03-18T15:43:05Z")
I'm confused then. You said you wanted _all_ terms (even those with doc\_count=0) and that there were 4,200 of them. Why pick sizes less than 4,200 if that's the case? [Next page](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/terms-agg/170966.md?page=2)