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Validate API

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Validate API

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Validates a potentially expensive query without executing it.

GET my-index-000001/_validate/query?q=user.id:kimchy

Request

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GET /<target>/_validate/<query>

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 validate API allows you to validate a potentially expensive query without executing it. The query can be sent either as a path parameter or in the request body.

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 or indices, omit this parameter or use * or _all.
query: (Optional, query object) Defines the search definition using the Query DSL.

Query parameters

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all_shards

(Optional, Boolean) If true, the validation is executed on all shards instead of one random shard per index. Defaults to false.

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 false.

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.

explain

(Optional, Boolean) If true, the response returns detailed information if an error has occurred. Defaults to false.

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.

rewrite

(Optional, Boolean) If true, returns a more detailed explanation showing the actual Lucene query that will be executed. Defaults to false.

q

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

Examples

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PUT my-index-000001/_bulk?refresh
{"index":{"_id":1}}
{"user" : { "id": "kimchy" }, "@timestamp" : "2099-11-15T14:12:12", "message" : "trying out Elasticsearch"}
{"index":{"_id":2}}
{"user" : { "id": "kimchi" }, "@timestamp" : "2099-11-15T14:12:13", "message" : "My user ID is similar to kimchy!"}

When sent a valid query:

GET my-index-000001/_validate/query?q=user.id:kimchy

The response contains valid:true:

{"valid":true,"_shards":{"total":1,"successful":1,"failed":0}}

The query may also be sent in the request body:

GET my-index-000001/_validate/query
{
  "query" : {
    "bool" : {
      "must" : {
        "query_string" : {
          "query" : "*:*"
        }
      },
      "filter" : {
        "term" : { "user.id" : "kimchy" }
      }
    }
  }
}

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

If the query is invalid, valid will be false. Here the query is invalid because Elasticsearch knows the post_date field should be a date due to dynamic mapping, and foo does not correctly parse into a date:

GET my-index-000001/_validate/query
{
  "query": {
    "query_string": {
      "query": "@timestamp:foo",
      "lenient": false
    }
  }
}

{"valid":false,"_shards":{"total":1,"successful":1,"failed":0}}

The explain parameter

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An explain parameter can be specified to get more detailed information about why a query failed:

GET my-index-000001/_validate/query?explain=true
{
  "query": {
    "query_string": {
      "query": "@timestamp:foo",
      "lenient": false
    }
  }
}

The API returns the following response:

{
  "valid" : false,
  "_shards" : {
    "total" : 1,
    "successful" : 1,
    "failed" : 0
  },
  "explanations" : [ {
    "index" : "my-index-000001",
    "valid" : false,
    "error" : "my-index-000001/IAEc2nIXSSunQA_suI0MLw] QueryShardException[failed to create query:...failed to parse date field [foo]"
  } ]
}

The rewrite parameter

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When the query is valid, the explanation defaults to the string representation of that query. With rewrite set to true, the explanation is more detailed showing the actual Lucene query that will be executed.

GET my-index-000001/_validate/query?rewrite=true
{
  "query": {
    "more_like_this": {
      "like": {
        "_id": "2"
      },
      "boost_terms": 1
    }
  }
}

The API returns the following response:

{
   "valid": true,
   "_shards": {
      "total": 1,
      "successful": 1,
      "failed": 0
   },
   "explanations": [
      {
         "index": "my-index-000001",
         "valid": true,
         "explanation": "((user:terminator^3.71334 plot:future^2.763601 plot:human^2.8415773 plot:sarah^3.4193945 plot:kyle^3.8244398 plot:cyborg^3.9177752 plot:connor^4.040236 plot:reese^4.7133346 ... )~6) -ConstantScore(_id:2)) #(ConstantScore(_type:_doc))^0.0"
      }
   ]
}

Rewrite and all_shards parameters

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By default, the request is executed on a single shard only, which is randomly selected. The detailed explanation of the query may depend on which shard is being hit, and therefore may vary from one request to another. So, in case of query rewrite the all_shards parameter should be used to get response from all available shards.

GET my-index-000001/_validate/query?rewrite=true&all_shards=true
{
  "query": {
    "match": {
      "user.id": {
        "query": "kimchy",
        "fuzziness": "auto"
      }
    }
  }
}

The API returns the following response:

{
  "valid": true,
  "_shards": {
    "total": 1,
    "successful": 1,
    "failed": 0
  },
  "explanations": [
    {
      "index": "my-index-000001",
      "shard": 0,
      "valid": true,
      "explanation": "(user.id:kimchi)^0.8333333 user.id:kimchy"
    }
  ]
}

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