Elasticsearch - Querying nested objects

Question

I'm storing objects in elasticsearch like this

{
  "user":{
           "name":"Johnson",
           "age":24
          }
}

Please note that I do not have a default mapping set in elasticsearch. I'm simply inserting the data directly.

Now, While using "nested query" to try to query the data.

GET user_index/user_document/_search
{

  "query":{
        "nested" : {
            "path" : "user",
            "score_mode" : "avg",
            "query" : {
                "bool" : {
                    "must" : [
                        {
                            "match" : {"user.name" : "Johnson"}
                        }
                    ]
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

This fails and i get an error

nested object under path [user] is not of nested type

My Questions are

Should i create a default mapping for querying nested objects?

Why can't a query like this below (which works) be used instead?

GET user_index/_search
 {

    "query":{

        "match":{

              "user.name":"Johnson"

                 }

            } 

}

jhilden · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-10 15:54:45Z

1

Should i create a default mapping for querying nested objects?

No. Nested objects in ES are used when you are going to be putting many objects into the array and need to query them separately. As a general rule, don't create nested objects until you find that you really need them. They bite you more then they help you in most cases.

Why can't a query like this below (which works) be used instead?

ES lowercases everything for searchability.
You should also use a "term" query when querying the whole value.

Here is a sample for you:

PUT test

POST test/index1
{
  "user":{
           "name":"Johnson",
           "age":24
          }
}

GET test/index1/_search
{
  "query": {
    "term": {
      "user.name": {
        "value": "johnson"
      }
    }
  }
}

answered Sep 10, 2015 at 15:54

jhilden

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2 Comments

wolfgang Over a year ago

Ah, why did the nested query fail in OP's question?

jhilden Over a year ago

Presumably because there was no explicit "nested" mapping created. You always need to do that manually, ES will never infer it.

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