# What is the Top Children query for? **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [July 23, 2013, 3:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-the-top-children-query-for/12905 "2013-07-23T15:57:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nick\_Hoffman](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/nick_hoffman/32/1872_2.png) [@Nick\_Hoffman](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Nick_Hoffman)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 3:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-the-top-children-query-for/12905/1 "2013-07-23T15:57:00Z")
Hi guys. I've read the documentation for the Top Children query[1], but don't understand what the query's purpose is. Could anyone shed some light on when Top Children is useful? Thanks! Nick [1] [http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/query-dsl/top-children-query/](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/query-dsl/top-children-query/) -- 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). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**Author:** ![mvg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mvg/32/98890_2.png) [@mvg](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mvg)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 9:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-the-top-children-query-for/12905/2 "2013-07-23T21:05:10Z")
The top\_children query allows you to return documents based on matches on other documents. Lets say you index movies and subtitles as separate documents. A movie is a parent and a subtitle is a child document. The top\_children will allows you to return the movies based on query matches in the associated subtitle documents. Most of times you want to use the has\_child query. The top\_children doesn't take into account all associated child docs, but only the top matching ones, it basically tries to match as much as child documents to return enough parent hits (based on from and size). The has\_child query takes into account all child document irrelevant of how many parent documents are requested. So the top\_children query is in most cases faster, but not accurate. The has\_child query is accurate, but usually slower then the has\_child query. On 23 July 2013 17:57, Nick Hoffman [nick@deadorange.com](mailto:nick@deadorange.com) wrote: > Hi guys. I've read the documentation for the Top Children query[1], but > don't understand what the query's purpose is. Could anyone shed some light > on when Top Children is useful? > > Thanks! > Nick > > [1] > [Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale | Elastic](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/query-dsl/top-children-query/) > > -- > 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). > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). -- Met vriendelijke groet, Martijn van Groningen -- 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). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**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, 2:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-the-top-children-query-for/12905/3 "2017-07-06T02:24:56Z")