elastic exists query for nested documents

Question

I have a nested documents as:

"someField": "hello", "users": [    {      "name": "John",       "surname": "Doe",       "age": 2    } ] 

according to this https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-exists-query.html, the above should match:

GET /_search {   "query": {     "exists" : { "field" : "users" }   } 

}

whereas the following should not,

"someField": "hello", "users": [] 

but unfortunately both do not match. any ideas?

Answer 1

The example mentioned on the Elasticsearch blog refers to string and array of string types, not for nested types.

The following query should work for you:

{     "query": {         "nested": {             "path": "users",             "query": {                 "bool": {                     "must": [                         {                             "exists": {                                 "field": "users"                             }                         }                     ]                 }             }         }     } } 

Also, you can refer to this issue for more info, which discusses this usage pattern.

Answer 2

This works for me

GET /type/_search?pretty=true {   "query": {     "bool": {       "must": [         {           "nested": {             "path": "outcome",             "query": {               "exists": {                 "field": "outcome.outcomeName"               }             }           }         }       ]     }   } }