# Version is always -1
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/version-is-always-1/9427
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [October 20, 2012, 8:40am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/version-is-always-1/9427 "2012-10-20T08:40:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Douglas\_Ferguson](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Douglas_Ferguson)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2012, 8:40am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/version-is-always-1/9427/1 "2012-10-20T08:40:25Z")
According to the docs version should auto increment when versionType is set
to INTERNAL (which is default and the value I have).
My observed behavior is that the version is always -1.
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### Author:  [@Clinton\_Gormley](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Clinton_Gormley)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2012, 10:17am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/version-is-always-1/9427/2 "2012-10-20T10:17:04Z")
On Sat, 2012-10-20 at 01:40 -0700, Douglas Ferguson wrote:
> According to the docs version should auto increment when versionType
> is set to INTERNAL (which is default and the value I have).
>
> My observed behavior is that the version is always -1.
How about a gist demonstrating this.
clint
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### Author:  [@Douglas\_Ferguson](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Douglas_Ferguson)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2012, 8:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/version-is-always-1/9427/3 "2012-10-20T20:06:16Z")
Here's a gist that demonstrates the issue:
> [Demonstation of Elastic Search Versions starting with -1 and not incrementing · GitHub](https://gist.github.com/3924599)
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### Author:  [@kimchy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kimchy)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2012, 10:22pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/version-is-always-1/9427/4 "2012-10-20T22:22:50Z")
Hey, can you try and actually ask for the version field in the search request (i.e. addField("version").addField("\_source"))? If you don't ask for it its not returned by default.
Regarding the comments you have, yes, explain is expensive to ask for, and try and not use the DFS\_… search type if you don't really need it.
On Oct 20, 2012, at 10:06 PM, Douglas Ferguson [thedug@gmail.com](mailto:thedug@gmail.com) wrote:
> Here's a gist that demonstrates the issue:
>
> [Demonstation of Elastic Search Versions starting with -1 and not incrementing · GitHub](https://gist.github.com/3924599)
>
> --
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### Author:  [@Douglas\_Ferguson](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Douglas_Ferguson)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2012, 6:31am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/version-is-always-1/9427/5 "2012-10-21T06:31:18Z")
Thanks Shay!
Is there a good resource for understanding the differences between
termQuery, fieldQuery, match, etc?
Would you recommend that I stick with the Default QUERY\_THEN\_FETCH?
On Saturday, October 20, 2012 5:22:52 PM UTC-5, kimchy wrote:
> Hey, can you try and actually ask for the version field in the search
> request (i.e. addField("version").addField("\_source"))? If you don't ask
> for it its not returned by default.
>
> Regarding the comments you have, yes, explain is expensive to ask for, and
> try and not use the DFS\_… search type if you don't really need it.
>
> On Oct 20, 2012, at 10:06 PM, Douglas Ferguson \<[the...@gmail.com](mailto:the...@gmail.com)\\>
> wrote:
>
> Here's a gist that demonstrates the issue:
>
> > [Demonstation of Elastic Search Versions starting with -1 and not incrementing · GitHub](https://gist.github.com/3924599)
>
> --
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### Author:  [@kimchy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kimchy)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2012, 10:18pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/version-is-always-1/9427/6 "2012-10-21T22:18:32Z")
Yea, stick with QUERY\_THEN\_FETCH.
Regarding the queries, effectively, you actually care about mostly two queries:
1. query\_string: if you want to support the lucene query parser syntax
2. match: for everything else. It does the right thing depending on the field index mapping, analysis, and type (like numerics).
On Oct 21, 2012, at 8:31 AM, Douglas Ferguson [thedug@gmail.com](mailto:thedug@gmail.com) wrote:
> Thanks Shay!
>
> Is there a good resource for understanding the differences between termQuery, fieldQuery, match, etc?
>
> Would you recommend that I stick with the Default QUERY\_THEN\_FETCH?
>
> On Saturday, October 20, 2012 5:22:52 PM UTC-5, kimchy wrote:
> Hey, can you try and actually ask for the version field in the search request (i.e. addField("version").addField("\_source"))? If you don't ask for it its not returned by default.
>
> Regarding the comments you have, yes, explain is expensive to ask for, and try and not use the DFS\_… search type if you don't really need it.
>
> On Oct 20, 2012, at 10:06 PM, Douglas Ferguson [the...@gmail.com](mailto:the...@gmail.com) wrote:
>
> > Here's a gist that demonstrates the issue:
> >
> > [Demonstation of Elastic Search Versions starting with -1 and not incrementing · GitHub](https://gist.github.com/3924599)
> >
> > --
>
> --
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### Author:  [@Douglas\_Ferguson](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Douglas_Ferguson)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2012, 6:02am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/version-is-always-1/9427/7 "2012-10-25T06:02:48Z")
I actually got around to trying this and it still prints out -1 for version
SearchResponse results = client.prepareSearch(index)
.setQuery(QueryBuilders.fieldQuery("MyKey", "MyValue"))
```
.addField("version").addField("_source")
.execute()
.actionGet();
```
System.err.println(results.getHits().getHits()[0].getVersion());
On Saturday, October 20, 2012 5:22:52 PM UTC-5, kimchy wrote:
> Hey, can you try and actually ask for the version field in the search
> request (i.e. addField("version").addField("\_source"))? If you don't ask
> for it its not returned by default.
>
> Regarding the comments you have, yes, explain is expensive to ask for, and
> try and not use the DFS\_… search type if you don't really need it.
>
> On Oct 20, 2012, at 10:06 PM, Douglas Ferguson \<[the...@gmail.com](mailto:the...@gmail.com)\\>
> wrote:
>
> Here's a gist that demonstrates the issue:
>
> > [Demonstation of Elastic Search Versions starting with -1 and not incrementing · GitHub](https://gist.github.com/3924599)
>
> --
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 3:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/version-is-always-1/9427/8 "2017-07-06T03:07:19Z")