Elasticsearch _query vs _search

Question

I have a question which is not quite clear for me when reading the documentation. What exactly is the difference between the _search and the _query Endpoint?

Thanks a lot! Matthias

Answer 1

The _search API endpoint allows you to execute a search query and get back search hits that match the query. The query can either be provided using a simple query string as a parameter, or using a request body.

curl -XGET 'http://localhost:9200/twitter/tweet,user/_search?q=user:kimchy'


curl -XGET 'http://localhost:9200/twitter/tweet/_search' -d '{
    "query" : {
        "term" : { "user" : "kimchy" }
    }
}
'

The _query endpoint, is for delete by query only (I think it only has handlers for DELETE, not POST, or GET).

curl -XDELETE 'http://localhost:9200/twitter/tweet/_query?q=user:kimchy'

You can learn more here: Elasticsearch Doco