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Count API

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Count API

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Gets the number of matches for a search query.

GET /my-index-000001/_count?q=user:kimchy

The query being sent in the body must be nested in a query key, same as the search API works.

Request

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GET /<target>/_count

Prerequisites

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If the Elasticsearch security features are enabled, you must have the read index privilege for the target data stream, index, or alias.

Description

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The count API allows you to execute a query and get the number of matches for that query. The query can either be provided using a simple query string as a parameter, or using the Query DSL defined within the request body.

The count API supports multi-target syntax. You can run a single count API search across multiple data streams and indices.

The operation is broadcast across all shards. For each shard id group, a replica is chosen and executed against it. This means that replicas increase the scalability of count.

Path parameters

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<target>: (Optional, string) Comma-separated list of data streams, indices, and aliases to search. Supports wildcards (*). To search all data streams and indices, omit this parameter or use * or _all.

Query parameters

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allow_no_indices

(Optional, Boolean) If false, the request returns an error if any wildcard expression, index alias, or _all value targets only missing or closed indices. This behavior applies even if the request targets other open indices. For example, a request targeting foo*,bar* returns an error if an index starts with foo but no index starts with bar.

Defaults to true.

analyzer

(Optional, string) Analyzer to use for the query string.

This parameter can only be used when the q query string parameter is specified.

analyze_wildcard

(Optional, Boolean) If true, wildcard and prefix queries are analyzed. Defaults to false.

This parameter can only be used when the q query string parameter is specified.

default_operator

(Optional, string) The default operator for query string query: AND or OR. Defaults to OR.

This parameter can only be used when the q query string parameter is specified.

df

(Optional, string) Field to use as default where no field prefix is given in the query string.

This parameter can only be used when the q query string parameter is specified.

expand_wildcards

(Optional, string) Type of index that wildcard expressions can match. If the request can target data streams, this argument determines whether wildcard expressions match hidden data streams. Supports comma-separated values, such as open,hidden. Valid values are:

all: Match any data stream or index, including hidden ones.
open: Match open, non-hidden indices. Also matches any non-hidden data stream.
closed: Match closed, non-hidden indices. Also matches any non-hidden data stream. Data streams cannot be closed.
hidden: Match hidden data streams and hidden indices. Must be combined with open, closed, or both.
none: Wildcard expressions are not accepted.

Defaults to open.

ignore_throttled

(Optional, Boolean) If true, concrete, expanded or aliased indices are ignored when frozen. Defaults to true.

ignore_unavailable

(Optional, Boolean) If false, the request returns an error if it targets a missing or closed index. Defaults to false.

lenient

(Optional, Boolean) If true, format-based query failures (such as providing text to a numeric field) in the query string will be ignored. Defaults to false.

This parameter can only be used when the q query string parameter is specified.

min_score

(Optional, float) Sets the minimum _score value that documents must have to be included in the result.

preference

(Optional, string) Specifies the node or shard the operation should be performed on. Random by default.

q

(Optional, string) Query in the Lucene query string syntax.

routing

(Optional, string) Custom value used to route operations to a specific shard.

terminate_after

(Optional, integer) Maximum number of documents to collect for each shard. If a query reaches this limit, Elasticsearch terminates the query early. Elasticsearch collects documents before sorting.

Use with caution. Elasticsearch applies this parameter to each shard handling the request. When possible, let Elasticsearch perform early termination automatically. Avoid specifying this parameter for requests that target data streams with backing indices across multiple data tiers.

Request body

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query: (Optional, query object) Defines the search definition using the Query DSL.

Examples

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PUT /my-index-000001/_doc/1?refresh
{
  "user.id": "kimchy"
}

GET /my-index-000001/_count?q=user:kimchy

GET /my-index-000001/_count
{
  "query" : {
    "term" : { "user.id" : "kimchy" }
  }
}

Both examples above do the same: count the number of documents in my-index-000001 with a user.id of kimchy. The API returns the following response:

{
  "count": 1,
  "_shards": {
    "total": 1,
    "successful": 1,
    "skipped": 0,
    "failed": 0
  }
}

The query is optional, and when not provided, it will use match_all to count all the docs.

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