# What does slash stand for in a index request?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-slash-stand-for-in-a-index-request/372914>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [January 8, 2025, 3:09am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-slash-stand-for-in-a-index-request/372914 "2025-01-08T03:09:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Richard\_Zhang](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/richard_zhang/32/140473_2.png) [@Richard\_Zhang](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Richard_Zhang)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2025, 3:09am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-slash-stand-for-in-a-index-request/372914/1 "2025-01-08T03:09:13Z")

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Maybe a stupid question, I ask because I feel like there could be some concept about ES index that I'm not aware of (and maybe many others don't know either.). So it's worth to ask this question because it can be helpful to other users as well.

The question is - what is the difference between the two requests? to be specific, what does the slash stand for?

```auto
 GET index_name_abc
 GET /index_name_abc

```

Perhaps there is a concept like sub index in ES so that we can so request like below???  
`GET /index_A/index_sub_A/`

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**Author:** ![TimV](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/timv/32/13162_2.png) [@TimV](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/TimV)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2025, 3:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-slash-stand-for-in-a-index-request/372914/2 "2025-01-08T03:48:59Z")

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The leading `/` is because it is a URL path, and paths start with a `/`

Those two requests are identical - the Kibana dev tools console will translate the first one into the second.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Richard\_Zhang](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/richard_zhang/32/140473_2.png) [@Richard\_Zhang](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Richard_Zhang)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2025, 8:02am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-does-slash-stand-for-in-a-index-request/372914/3 "2025-01-08T08:02:21Z")

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That makes sense.

> the Kibana dev tools console will translate the first one into the second.

So technically the first one is invalid url path, it works just because Dev Tools' tolerance considering user experience, is it? That also sounds reasonable. Thanks.