Retrieve selected fields from a search
Retrieve selected fields from a search
By default, each hit in the search response includes the document _source, which is the entire JSON object that was provided when indexing the document. There are two recommended methods to retrieve selected fields from a search query:
- Use the fields option to extract the values of fields present in the index mapping
- Use the _source option if you need to access the original data that was passed at index time
You can use both of these methods, though the fields
option is preferred because it consults both the document data and index mappings. In some instances, you might want to use other methods of retrieving data.
The fields
option
To retrieve specific fields in the search response, use the fields
parameter. Because it consults the index mappings, the fields
parameter provides several advantages over referencing the _source
directly. Specifically, the fields
parameter:
- Returns each value in a standardized way that matches its mapping type
- Accepts multi-fields and field aliases
- Formats dates and spatial data types
- Retrieves runtime field values
- Returns fields calculated by a script at index time
- Returns fields from related indices using lookup runtime fields
Other mapping options are also respected, including ignore_above, ignore_malformed, and null_value.
The fields
option returns values in the way that matches how Elasticsearch indexes them. For standard fields, this means that the fields
option looks in _source
to find the values, then parses and formats them using the mappings. Selected fields that can’t be found in _source
are skipped.
Retrieve specific fields
The following search request uses the fields
parameter to retrieve values for the user.id
field, all fields starting with http.response.
, and the @timestamp
field.
Using object notation, you can pass a format argument to customize the format of returned date or geospatial values.
resp = client.search(
index="my-index-000001",
query={
"match": {
"user.id": "kimchy"
}
},
fields=[
"user.id",
"http.response.*",
{
"field": "@timestamp",
"format": "epoch_millis"
}
],
source=False,
)
print(resp)
response = client.search(
index: 'my-index-000001',
body: {
query: {
match: {
'user.id' => 'kimchy'
}
},
fields: [
'user.id',
'http.response.*',
{
field: '@timestamp',
format: 'epoch_millis'
}
],
_source: false
}
)
puts response
const response = await client.search({
index: "my-index-000001",
query: {
match: {
"user.id": "kimchy",
},
},
fields: [
"user.id",
"http.response.*",
{
field: "@timestamp",
format: "epoch_millis",
},
],
_source: false,
});
console.log(response);
POST my-index-000001/_search
{
"query": {
"match": {
"user.id": "kimchy"
}
},
"fields": [
"user.id",
"http.response.*",
{
"field": "@timestamp",
"format": "epoch_millis"
}
],
"_source": false
}
Both full field names and wildcard patterns are accepted. | |
Use the |
By default, document metadata fields like _id
or _index
are not returned when the requested fields
option uses wildcard patterns like *
. However, when explicitly requested using the field name, the _id
, _routing
, _ignored
, _index
and _version
metadata fields can be retrieved.
Response always returns an array
The fields
response always returns an array of values for each field, even when there is a single value in the _source
. This is because Elasticsearch has no dedicated array type, and any field could contain multiple values. The fields
parameter also does not guarantee that array values are returned in a specific order. See the mapping documentation on arrays for more background.
The response includes values as a flat list in the fields
section for each hit. Because the fields
parameter doesn’t fetch entire objects, only leaf fields are returned.
{
"hits" : {
"total" : {
"value" : 1,
"relation" : "eq"
},
"max_score" : 1.0,
"hits" : [
{
"_index" : "my-index-000001",
"_id" : "0",
"_score" : 1.0,
"fields" : {
"user.id" : [
"kimchy"
],
"@timestamp" : [
"4098435132000"
],
"http.response.bytes": [
1070000
],
"http.response.status_code": [
200
]
}
}
]
}
}
Retrieve nested fields
Details
The fields
response for nested fields is slightly different from that of regular object fields. While leaf values inside regular object
fields are returned as a flat list, values inside nested
fields are grouped to maintain the independence of each object inside the original nested array. For each entry inside a nested field array, values are again returned as a flat list unless there are other nested
fields inside the parent nested object, in which case the same procedure is repeated again for the deeper nested fields.
Given the following mapping where user
is a nested field, after indexing the following document and retrieving all fields under the user
field:
resp = client.indices.create(
index="my-index-000001",
mappings={
"properties": {
"group": {
"type": "keyword"
},
"user": {
"type": "nested",
"properties": {
"first": {
"type": "keyword"
},
"last": {
"type": "keyword"
}
}
}
}
},
)
print(resp)
resp1 = client.index(
index="my-index-000001",
id="1",
refresh=True,
document={
"group": "fans",
"user": [
{
"first": "John",
"last": "Smith"
},
{
"first": "Alice",
"last": "White"
}
]
},
)
print(resp1)
resp2 = client.search(
index="my-index-000001",
fields=[
"*"
],
source=False,
)
print(resp2)
response = client.indices.create(
index: 'my-index-000001',
body: {
mappings: {
properties: {
group: {
type: 'keyword'
},
user: {
type: 'nested',
properties: {
first: {
type: 'keyword'
},
last: {
type: 'keyword'
}
}
}
}
}
}
)
puts response
response = client.index(
index: 'my-index-000001',
id: 1,
refresh: true,
body: {
group: 'fans',
user: [
{
first: 'John',
last: 'Smith'
},
{
first: 'Alice',
last: 'White'
}
]
}
)
puts response
response = client.search(
index: 'my-index-000001',
body: {
fields: [
'*'
],
_source: false
}
)
puts response
const response = await client.indices.create({
index: "my-index-000001",
mappings: {
properties: {
group: {
type: "keyword",
},
user: {
type: "nested",
properties: {
first: {
type: "keyword",
},
last: {
type: "keyword",
},
},
},
},
},
});
console.log(response);
const response1 = await client.index({
index: "my-index-000001",
id: 1,
refresh: "true",
document: {
group: "fans",
user: [
{
first: "John",
last: "Smith",
},
{
first: "Alice",
last: "White",
},
],
},
});
console.log(response1);
const response2 = await client.search({
index: "my-index-000001",
fields: ["*"],
_source: false,
});
console.log(response2);
PUT my-index-000001
{
"mappings": {
"properties": {
"group" : { "type" : "keyword" },
"user": {
"type": "nested",
"properties": {
"first" : { "type" : "keyword" },
"last" : { "type" : "keyword" }
}
}
}
}
}
PUT my-index-000001/_doc/1?refresh=true
{
"group" : "fans",
"user" : [
{
"first" : "John",
"last" : "Smith"
},
{
"first" : "Alice",
"last" : "White"
}
]
}
POST my-index-000001/_search
{
"fields": ["*"],
"_source": false
}
The response will group first
and last
name instead of returning them as a flat list.
{
"took": 2,
"timed_out": false,
"_shards": {
"total": 1,
"successful": 1,
"skipped": 0,
"failed": 0
},
"hits": {
"total": {
"value": 1,
"relation": "eq"
},
"max_score": 1.0,
"hits": [{
"_index": "my-index-000001",
"_id": "1",
"_score": 1.0,
"fields": {
"group" : ["fans"],
"user": [{
"first": ["John"],
"last": ["Smith"]
},
{
"first": ["Alice"],
"last": ["White"]
}
]
}
}]
}
}
Nested fields will be grouped by their nested paths, no matter the pattern used to retrieve them. For example, if you query only for the user.first
field from the previous example:
resp = client.search(
index="my-index-000001",
fields=[
"user.first"
],
source=False,
)
print(resp)
response = client.search(
index: 'my-index-000001',
body: {
fields: [
'user.first'
],
_source: false
}
)
puts response
const response = await client.search({
index: "my-index-000001",
fields: ["user.first"],
_source: false,
});
console.log(response);
POST my-index-000001/_search
{
"fields": ["user.first"],
"_source": false
}
The response returns only the user’s first name, but still maintains the structure of the nested user
array:
{
"took": 2,
"timed_out": false,
"_shards": {
"total": 1,
"successful": 1,
"skipped": 0,
"failed": 0
},
"hits": {
"total": {
"value": 1,
"relation": "eq"
},
"max_score": 1.0,
"hits": [{
"_index": "my-index-000001",
"_id": "1",
"_score": 1.0,
"fields": {
"user": [{
"first": ["John"]
},
{
"first": ["Alice"]
}
]
}
}]
}
}
However, when the fields
pattern targets the nested user
field directly, no values will be returned because the pattern doesn’t match any leaf fields.
Retrieve unmapped fields
Details
By default, the fields
parameter returns only values of mapped fields. However, Elasticsearch allows storing fields in _source
that are unmapped, such as setting dynamic field mapping to false
or by using an object field with enabled: false
. These options disable parsing and indexing of the object content.
To retrieve unmapped fields in an object from _source
, use the include_unmapped
option in the fields
section:
resp = client.indices.create(
index="my-index-000001",
mappings={
"enabled": False
},
)
print(resp)
resp1 = client.index(
index="my-index-000001",
id="1",
refresh=True,
document={
"user_id": "kimchy",
"session_data": {
"object": {
"some_field": "some_value"
}
}
},
)
print(resp1)
resp2 = client.search(
index="my-index-000001",
fields=[
"user_id",
{
"field": "session_data.object.*",
"include_unmapped": True
}
],
source=False,
)
print(resp2)
response = client.indices.create(
index: 'my-index-000001',
body: {
mappings: {
enabled: false
}
}
)
puts response
response = client.index(
index: 'my-index-000001',
id: 1,
refresh: true,
body: {
user_id: 'kimchy',
session_data: {
object: {
some_field: 'some_value'
}
}
}
)
puts response
response = client.search(
index: 'my-index-000001',
body: {
fields: [
'user_id',
{
field: 'session_data.object.*',
include_unmapped: true
}
],
_source: false
}
)
puts response
const response = await client.indices.create({
index: "my-index-000001",
mappings: {
enabled: false,
},
});
console.log(response);
const response1 = await client.index({
index: "my-index-000001",
id: 1,
refresh: "true",
document: {
user_id: "kimchy",
session_data: {
object: {
some_field: "some_value",
},
},
},
});
console.log(response1);
const response2 = await client.search({
index: "my-index-000001",
fields: [
"user_id",
{
field: "session_data.object.*",
include_unmapped: true,
},
],
_source: false,
});
console.log(response2);
PUT my-index-000001
{
"mappings": {
"enabled": false
}
}
PUT my-index-000001/_doc/1?refresh=true
{
"user_id": "kimchy",
"session_data": {
"object": {
"some_field": "some_value"
}
}
}
POST my-index-000001/_search
{
"fields": [
"user_id",
{
"field": "session_data.object.*",
"include_unmapped" : true
}
],
"_source": false
}
Disable all mappings. | |
Include unmapped fields matching this field pattern. |
The response will contain field results under the session_data.object.*
path, even if the fields are unmapped. The user_id
field is also unmapped, but it won’t be included in the response because include_unmapped
isn’t set to true
for that field pattern.
{
"took" : 2,
"timed_out" : false,
"_shards" : {
"total" : 1,
"successful" : 1,
"skipped" : 0,
"failed" : 0
},
"hits" : {
"total" : {
"value" : 1,
"relation" : "eq"
},
"max_score" : 1.0,
"hits" : [
{
"_index" : "my-index-000001",
"_id" : "1",
"_score" : 1.0,
"fields" : {
"session_data.object.some_field": [
"some_value"
]
}
}
]
}
}
Ignored field values
Details
The fields
section of the response only returns values that were valid when indexed. If your search request asks for values from a field that ignored certain values because they were malformed or too large these values are returned separately in an ignored_field_values
section.
In this example we index a document that has a value which is ignored and not added to the index so is shown separately in search results:
resp = client.indices.create(
index="my-index-000001",
mappings={
"properties": {
"my-small": {
"type": "keyword",
"ignore_above": 2
},
"my-large": {
"type": "keyword"
}
}
},
)
print(resp)
resp1 = client.index(
index="my-index-000001",
id="1",
refresh=True,
document={
"my-small": [
"ok",
"bad"
],
"my-large": "ok content"
},
)
print(resp1)
resp2 = client.search(
index="my-index-000001",
fields=[
"my-*"
],
source=False,
)
print(resp2)
response = client.indices.create(
index: 'my-index-000001',
body: {
mappings: {
properties: {
"my-small": {
type: 'keyword',
ignore_above: 2
},
"my-large": {
type: 'keyword'
}
}
}
}
)
puts response
response = client.index(
index: 'my-index-000001',
id: 1,
refresh: true,
body: {
"my-small": [
'ok',
'bad'
],
"my-large": 'ok content'
}
)
puts response
response = client.search(
index: 'my-index-000001',
body: {
fields: [
'my-*'
],
_source: false
}
)
puts response
const response = await client.indices.create({
index: "my-index-000001",
mappings: {
properties: {
"my-small": {
type: "keyword",
ignore_above: 2,
},
"my-large": {
type: "keyword",
},
},
},
});
console.log(response);
const response1 = await client.index({
index: "my-index-000001",
id: 1,
refresh: "true",
document: {
"my-small": ["ok", "bad"],
"my-large": "ok content",
},
});
console.log(response1);
const response2 = await client.search({
index: "my-index-000001",
fields: ["my-*"],
_source: false,
});
console.log(response2);
PUT my-index-000001
{
"mappings": {
"properties": {
"my-small" : { "type" : "keyword", "ignore_above": 2 },
"my-large" : { "type" : "keyword" }
}
}
}
PUT my-index-000001/_doc/1?refresh=true
{
"my-small": ["ok", "bad"],
"my-large": "ok content"
}
POST my-index-000001/_search
{
"fields": ["my-*"],
"_source": false
}
This field has a size restriction | |
This document field has a value that exceeds the size restriction so is ignored and not indexed |
The response will contain ignored field values under the ignored_field_values
path. These values are retrieved from the document’s original JSON source and are raw so will not be formatted or treated in any way, unlike the successfully indexed fields which are returned in the fields
section.
{
"took" : 2,
"timed_out" : false,
"_shards" : {
"total" : 1,
"successful" : 1,
"skipped" : 0,
"failed" : 0
},
"hits" : {
"total" : {
"value" : 1,
"relation" : "eq"
},
"max_score" : 1.0,
"hits" : [
{
"_index" : "my-index-000001",
"_id" : "1",
"_score" : 1.0,
"_ignored" : [ "my-small"],
"fields" : {
"my-large": [
"ok content"
],
"my-small": [
"ok"
]
},
"ignored_field_values" : {
"my-small": [
"bad"
]
}
}
]
}
}
The _source
option
You can use the _source
parameter to select what fields of the source are returned. This is called source filtering.
The following search API request sets the _source
request body parameter to false
. The document source is not included in the response.
resp = client.search(
source=False,
query={
"match": {
"user.id": "kimchy"
}
},
)
print(resp)
response = client.search(
body: {
_source: false,
query: {
match: {
'user.id' => 'kimchy'
}
}
}
)
puts response
const response = await client.search({
_source: false,
query: {
match: {
"user.id": "kimchy",
},
},
});
console.log(response);
GET /_search
{
"_source": false,
"query": {
"match": {
"user.id": "kimchy"
}
}
}
To return only a subset of source fields, specify a wildcard (*
) pattern in the _source
parameter. The following search API request returns the source for only the obj
field and its properties.
resp = client.search(
source="obj.*",
query={
"match": {
"user.id": "kimchy"
}
},
)
print(resp)
response = client.search(
body: {
_source: 'obj.*',
query: {
match: {
'user.id' => 'kimchy'
}
}
}
)
puts response
const response = await client.search({
_source: "obj.*",
query: {
match: {
"user.id": "kimchy",
},
},
});
console.log(response);
GET /_search
{
"_source": "obj.*",
"query": {
"match": {
"user.id": "kimchy"
}
}
}
You can also specify an array of wildcard patterns in the _source
field. The following search API request returns the source for only the obj1
and obj2
fields and their properties.
resp = client.search(
source=[
"obj1.*",
"obj2.*"
],
query={
"match": {
"user.id": "kimchy"
}
},
)
print(resp)
response = client.search(
body: {
_source: [
'obj1.*',
'obj2.*'
],
query: {
match: {
'user.id' => 'kimchy'
}
}
}
)
puts response
const response = await client.search({
_source: ["obj1.*", "obj2.*"],
query: {
match: {
"user.id": "kimchy",
},
},
});
console.log(response);
GET /_search
{
"_source": [ "obj1.*", "obj2.*" ],
"query": {
"match": {
"user.id": "kimchy"
}
}
}
For finer control, you can specify an object containing arrays of includes
and excludes
patterns in the _source
parameter.
If the includes
property is specified, only source fields that match one of its patterns are returned. You can exclude fields from this subset using the excludes
property.
If the includes
property is not specified, the entire document source is returned, excluding any fields that match a pattern in the excludes
property.
The following search API request returns the source for only the obj1
and obj2
fields and their properties, excluding any child description
fields.
resp = client.search(
source={
"includes": [
"obj1.*",
"obj2.*"
],
"excludes": [
"*.description"
]
},
query={
"term": {
"user.id": "kimchy"
}
},
)
print(resp)
response = client.search(
body: {
_source: {
includes: [
'obj1.*',
'obj2.*'
],
excludes: [
'*.description'
]
},
query: {
term: {
'user.id' => 'kimchy'
}
}
}
)
puts response
const response = await client.search({
_source: {
includes: ["obj1.*", "obj2.*"],
excludes: ["*.description"],
},
query: {
term: {
"user.id": "kimchy",
},
},
});
console.log(response);
GET /_search
{
"_source": {
"includes": [ "obj1.*", "obj2.*" ],
"excludes": [ "*.description" ]
},
"query": {
"term": {
"user.id": "kimchy"
}
}
}
Other methods of retrieving data
Using fields
is typically better
These options are usually not required. Using the fields
option is typically the better choice, unless you absolutely need to force loading a stored or docvalue_fields
.
A document’s _source
is stored as a single field in Lucene. This structure means that the whole _source
object must be loaded and parsed even if you’re only requesting part of it. To avoid this limitation, you can try other options for loading fields:
- Use the docvalue_fields parameter to get values for selected fields. This can be a good choice when returning a fairly small number of fields that support doc values, such as keywords and dates.
- Use the stored_fields parameter to get the values for specific stored fields (fields that use the store mapping option).
Elasticsearch always attempts to load values from _source
. This behavior has the same implications of source filtering where Elasticsearch needs to load and parse the entire _source
to retrieve just one field.
Doc value fields
You can use the docvalue_fields parameter to return doc values for one or more fields in the search response.
Doc values store the same values as the _source
but in an on-disk, column-based structure that’s optimized for sorting and aggregations. Since each field is stored separately, Elasticsearch only reads the field values that were requested and can avoid loading the whole document _source
.
Doc values are stored for supported fields by default. However, doc values are not supported for text or text_annotated fields.
The following search request uses the docvalue_fields
parameter to retrieve doc values for the user.id
field, all fields starting with http.response.
, and the @timestamp
field:
resp = client.search(
index="my-index-000001",
query={
"match": {
"user.id": "kimchy"
}
},
docvalue_fields=[
"user.id",
"http.response.*",
{
"field": "date",
"format": "epoch_millis"
}
],
)
print(resp)
response = client.search(
index: 'my-index-000001',
body: {
query: {
match: {
'user.id' => 'kimchy'
}
},
docvalue_fields: [
'user.id',
'http.response.*',
{
field: 'date',
format: 'epoch_millis'
}
]
}
)
puts response
const response = await client.search({
index: "my-index-000001",
query: {
match: {
"user.id": "kimchy",
},
},
docvalue_fields: [
"user.id",
"http.response.*",
{
field: "date",
format: "epoch_millis",
},
],
});
console.log(response);
GET my-index-000001/_search
{
"query": {
"match": {
"user.id": "kimchy"
}
},
"docvalue_fields": [
"user.id",
"http.response.*",
{
"field": "date",
"format": "epoch_millis"
}
]
}
Both full field names and wildcard patterns are accepted. | |
Using object notation, you can pass a |
You cannot use the docvalue_fields
parameter to retrieve doc values for nested objects. If you specify a nested object, the search returns an empty array ([ ]
) for the field. To access nested fields, use the inner_hits parameter’s docvalue_fields
property.
Stored fields
It’s also possible to store an individual field’s values by using the store mapping option. You can use the stored_fields
parameter to include these stored values in the search response.
The stored_fields
parameter is for fields that are explicitly marked as stored in the mapping, which is off by default and generally not recommended. Use source filtering instead to select subsets of the original source document to be returned.
Allows to selectively load specific stored fields for each document represented by a search hit.
resp = client.search(
stored_fields=[
"user",
"postDate"
],
query={
"term": {
"user": "kimchy"
}
},
)
print(resp)
response = client.search(
body: {
stored_fields: [
'user',
'postDate'
],
query: {
term: {
user: 'kimchy'
}
}
}
)
puts response
const response = await client.search({
stored_fields: ["user", "postDate"],
query: {
term: {
user: "kimchy",
},
},
});
console.log(response);
GET /_search
{
"stored_fields" : ["user", "postDate"],
"query" : {
"term" : { "user" : "kimchy" }
}
}
*
can be used to load all stored fields from the document.
An empty array will cause only the _id
and _type
for each hit to be returned, for example:
resp = client.search(
stored_fields=[],
query={
"term": {
"user": "kimchy"
}
},
)
print(resp)
response = client.search(
body: {
stored_fields: [],
query: {
term: {
user: 'kimchy'
}
}
}
)
puts response
const response = await client.search({
stored_fields: [],
query: {
term: {
user: "kimchy",
},
},
});
console.log(response);
GET /_search
{
"stored_fields" : [],
"query" : {
"term" : { "user" : "kimchy" }
}
}
If the requested fields are not stored (store
mapping set to false
), they will be ignored.
Stored field values fetched from the document itself are always returned as an array. On the contrary, metadata fields like _routing
are never returned as an array.
Also only leaf fields can be returned via the stored_fields
option. If an object field is specified, it will be ignored.
On its own, stored_fields
cannot be used to load fields in nested objects — if a field contains a nested object in its path, then no data will be returned for that stored field. To access nested fields, stored_fields
must be used within an inner_hits block.
Disable stored fields
To disable the stored fields (and metadata fields) entirely use: _none_
:
resp = client.search(
stored_fields="_none_",
query={
"term": {
"user": "kimchy"
}
},
)
print(resp)
response = client.search(
body: {
stored_fields: '_none_',
query: {
term: {
user: 'kimchy'
}
}
}
)
puts response
const response = await client.search({
stored_fields: "_none_",
query: {
term: {
user: "kimchy",
},
},
});
console.log(response);
GET /_search
{
"stored_fields": "_none_",
"query" : {
"term" : { "user" : "kimchy" }
}
}
_source and version parameters cannot be activated if _none_
is used.
Script fields
You can use the script_fields
parameter to retrieve a script evaluation (based on different fields) for each hit. For example:
resp = client.search(
query={
"match_all": {}
},
script_fields={
"test1": {
"script": {
"lang": "painless",
"source": "doc['price'].value * 2"
}
},
"test2": {
"script": {
"lang": "painless",
"source": "doc['price'].value * params.factor",
"params": {
"factor": 2
}
}
}
},
)
print(resp)
response = client.search(
body: {
query: {
match_all: {}
},
script_fields: {
"test1": {
script: {
lang: 'painless',
source: "doc['price'].value * 2"
}
},
"test2": {
script: {
lang: 'painless',
source: "doc['price'].value * params.factor",
params: {
factor: 2
}
}
}
}
}
)
puts response
const response = await client.search({
query: {
match_all: {},
},
script_fields: {
test1: {
script: {
lang: "painless",
source: "doc['price'].value * 2",
},
},
test2: {
script: {
lang: "painless",
source: "doc['price'].value * params.factor",
params: {
factor: 2,
},
},
},
},
});
console.log(response);
GET /_search
{
"query": {
"match_all": {}
},
"script_fields": {
"test1": {
"script": {
"lang": "painless",
"source": "doc['price'].value * 2"
}
},
"test2": {
"script": {
"lang": "painless",
"source": "doc['price'].value * params.factor",
"params": {
"factor": 2.0
}
}
}
}
}
Script fields can work on fields that are not stored (price
in the above case), and allow to return custom values to be returned (the evaluated value of the script).
Script fields can also access the actual _source
document and extract specific elements to be returned from it by using params['_source']
. Here is an example:
resp = client.search(
query={
"match_all": {}
},
script_fields={
"test1": {
"script": "params['_source']['message']"
}
},
)
print(resp)
response = client.search(
body: {
query: {
match_all: {}
},
script_fields: {
"test1": {
script: "params['_source']['message']"
}
}
}
)
puts response
const response = await client.search({
query: {
match_all: {},
},
script_fields: {
test1: {
script: "params['_source']['message']",
},
},
});
console.log(response);
GET /_search
{
"query": {
"match_all": {}
},
"script_fields": {
"test1": {
"script": "params['_source']['message']"
}
}
}
Note the _source
keyword here to navigate the json-like model.
It’s important to understand the difference between doc['my_field'].value
and params['_source']['my_field']
. The first, using the doc keyword, will cause the terms for that field to be loaded to memory (cached), which will result in faster execution, but more memory consumption. Also, the doc[...]
notation only allows for simple valued fields (you can’t return a json object from it) and makes sense only for non-analyzed or single term based fields. However, using doc
is still the recommended way to access values from the document, if at all possible, because _source
must be loaded and parsed every time it’s used. Using _source
is very slow.