elasticsearch/docs/reference/docs/get.asciidoc

[[docs-get]]
=== Get API
++++
<titleabbrev>Get</titleabbrev>
++++

Retrieves the specified JSON document from an index.

[[docs-get-api-request]]
==== {api-request-title}

`GET <index>/_doc/<_id>`

`HEAD <index>/_doc/<_id>`

`GET <index>/_source/<_id>`

`HEAD <index>/_source/<_id>`

[[docs-get-api-desc]]
==== {api-description-title}
You use GET to retrieve a document and its source or stored fields from a
particular index. Use HEAD to verify that a document exists. You can
use the `_source` resource retrieve just the document source or verify
that it exists.

[float]
[[realtime]]
===== Realtime

By default, the get API is realtime, and is not affected by the refresh
rate of the index (when data will become visible for search). If a document
has been updated but is not yet refreshed, the get API will issue a refresh
call in-place to make the document visible. This will also make other documents
changed since the last refresh visible. In order to disable realtime GET,
one can set the `realtime` parameter to `false`.

[float]
[[get-source-filtering]]
===== Source filtering

By default, the get operation returns the contents of the `_source` field unless
you have used the `stored_fields` parameter or if the `_source` field is disabled.
You can turn off `_source` retrieval by using the `_source` parameter:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
GET twitter/_doc/0?_source=false
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[setup:twitter]

If you only need one or two fields from the `_source`, use the `_source_includes`
or `_source_excludes` parameters to include or filter out particular fields.
This can be especially helpful with large documents where partial retrieval can
save on network overhead. Both parameters take a comma separated list
of fields or wildcard expressions. Example:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
GET twitter/_doc/0?_source_includes=*.id&_source_excludes=entities
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[setup:twitter]

If you only want to specify includes, you can use a shorter notation:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
GET twitter/_doc/0?_source=*.id,retweeted
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[setup:twitter]

[float]
[[get-routing]]
===== Routing

If routing is used during indexing, the routing value also needs to be
specified to retrieve a document. For example:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
GET twitter/_doc/2?routing=user1
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[continued]

This request gets the tweet with id `2`, but it is routed based on the
user. The document is not fetched if the correct routing is not specified.

[float]
[[preference]]
===== Preference

Controls a `preference` of which shard replicas to execute the get
request on. By default, the operation is randomized between the shard
replicas.

The `preference` can be set to:

`_local`::
	The operation will prefer to be executed on a local
	allocated shard if possible.

Custom (string) value::
	A custom value will be used to guarantee that
	the same shards will be used for the same custom value. This can help
	with "jumping values" when hitting different shards in different refresh
	states. A sample value can be something like the web session id, or the
	user name.

[float]
[[get-refresh]]
===== Refresh

The `refresh` parameter can be set to `true` in order to refresh the
relevant shard before the get operation and make it searchable. Setting
it to `true` should be done after careful thought and verification that
this does not cause a heavy load on the system (and slows down
indexing).

[float]
[[get-distributed]]
===== Distributed

The get operation gets hashed into a specific shard id. It then gets
redirected to one of the replicas within that shard id and returns the
result. The replicas are the primary shard and its replicas within that
shard id group. This means that the more replicas we have, the
better GET scaling we will have.

[float]
[[get-versioning]]
===== Versioning support

You can use the `version` parameter to retrieve the document only if
its current version is equal to the specified one. This behavior is the same
for all version types with the exception of version type `FORCE` which always
retrieves the document. Note that `FORCE` version type is deprecated.

Internally, Elasticsearch has marked the old document as deleted and added an
entirely new document. The old version of the document doesn’t disappear
immediately, although you won’t be able to access it. Elasticsearch cleans up
deleted documents in the background as you continue to index more data.

[[docs-get-api-path-params]]
==== {api-path-parms-title}

`<index>`::
(Required, string) Name of the index that contains the document.

`<_id>`::
(Required, string) Unique identifier of the document.

[[docs-get-api-query-params]]
==== {api-query-parms-title}

`preference`::
(Optional, string) Specify the node or shard the operation should
be performed on (default: random).

`realtime`::
(Optional, boolean) Set to `false` to disable real time GET
(default: `true`). See <<realtime>>.

include::{docdir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=doc-refresh]

include::{docdir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=doc-routing]

`stored_fields`::
(Optional, boolean) Set to `true` to retrieve the document fields stored in the
index rather than the document `_source` (default: `false`).

`_source`::
(Optional, list) Set to `false` to disable source retrieval (default: `true`).
 You can also specify a comma-separated list of the fields
you want to retrieve.

`_source_excludes`::
(Optional, list) Specify the source fields you want to exclude.

`_source_includes`::
(Optional, list) Specify the source fields you want to retrieve.

include::{docdir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=doc-version]

include::{docdir}/rest-api/common-parms.asciidoc[tag=doc-version-type]

[[docs-get-api-response-body]]
==== {api-response-body-title}

`_index`::
The name of the index the document belongs to.

`_type`::
The document type. {es} indices now support a single document type, `_doc`.

`_id`::
The unique identifier for the document.

`_version`::
The document version. Incremented each time the document is updated.

`_seq_no`::
The sequence number assigned to the document for the indexing
operation. Sequence numbers are used to ensure an older version of a document
doesn’t overwrite a newer version. See <<optimistic-concurrency-control-index>>.

`_primary_term`::
The primary term assigned to the document for the indexing operation.
See <<optimistic-concurrency-control-index>>.

`found`::
Indicates whether the document exists: `true` or `false`.

`_routing`::
The explicit routing, if set.

'_source'::
If `found` is `true`, contains the document data formatted in JSON.
Excluded if the `_source` parameter is set to `false` or the `stored_fields`
paramter is set to `true`.

'_fields'::
If the `stored_fields` parameter is set to `true` and `found` is
`true`, contains the document fields stored in the index.

[[docs-get-api-example]]
==== {api-examples-title}

Retrieve the JSON document with the `_id` 0 from the `twitter` index:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
GET twitter/_doc/0
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[setup:twitter]

The API returns the following result:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
{
    "_index" : "twitter",
    "_type" : "_doc",
    "_id" : "0",
    "_version" : 1,
    "_seq_no" : 10,
    "_primary_term" : 1,
    "found": true,
    "_source" : {
        "user" : "kimchy",
        "date" : "2009-11-15T14:12:12",
        "likes": 0,
        "message" : "trying out Elasticsearch"
    }
}
--------------------------------------------------
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"_seq_no" : \d+/"_seq_no" : $body._seq_no/ s/"_primary_term" : 1/"_primary_term" : $body._primary_term/]

Check to see if a document with the `_id` 0 exists:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
HEAD twitter/_doc/0
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[setup:twitter]

{es} returns a status code of `200 - OK` if the document exists, or
`404 - Not Found` if it doesn't.

[float]
[[_source]]
===== Get the source field only

Use the `<index>/_source/<id>` resource to get
just the `_source` field of a document. For example:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
GET twitter/_source/1
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[continued]

You can use the source filtering parameters to control which parts of the
`_source` are returned:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
GET twitter/_source/1/?_source_includes=*.id&_source_excludes=entities
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[continued]

You can use HEAD with the `_source` endpoint to efficiently
test whether or not the document _source exists. A document's source is not
available if it is disabled in the <<mapping-source-field,mapping>>.

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
HEAD twitter/_source/1
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[continued]

[float]
[[get-stored-fields]]
===== Get stored fields

Use the `stored_fields` parameter to specify the set of stored fields you want
to retrieve. Any requested fields that are not stored are ignored.
Consider for instance the following mapping:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
PUT twitter
{
   "mappings": {
       "properties": {
          "counter": {
             "type": "integer",
             "store": false
          },
          "tags": {
             "type": "keyword",
             "store": true
          }
       }
   }
}
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE

Now we can add a document:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
PUT twitter/_doc/1
{
    "counter" : 1,
    "tags" : ["red"]
}
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[continued]

And then try to retrieve it:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
GET twitter/_doc/1?stored_fields=tags,counter
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[continued]

The API returns the following result:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
{
   "_index": "twitter",
   "_type": "_doc",
   "_id": "1",
   "_version": 1,
   "_seq_no" : 22,
   "_primary_term" : 1,
   "found": true,
   "fields": {
      "tags": [
         "red"
      ]
   }
}
--------------------------------------------------
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"_seq_no" : \d+/"_seq_no" : $body._seq_no/ s/"_primary_term" : 1/"_primary_term" : $body._primary_term/]

Field values fetched from the document itself are always returned as an array.
Since the `counter` field is not stored, the get request  ignores it.

You can also retrieve metadata fields like the `_routing` field:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
PUT twitter/_doc/2?routing=user1
{
    "counter" : 1,
    "tags" : ["white"]
}
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[continued]

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
GET twitter/_doc/2?routing=user1&stored_fields=tags,counter
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[continued]

The API returns the following result:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
{
   "_index": "twitter",
   "_type": "_doc",
   "_id": "2",
   "_version": 1,
   "_seq_no" : 13,
   "_primary_term" : 1,
   "_routing": "user1",
   "found": true,
   "fields": {
      "tags": [
         "white"
      ]
   }
}
--------------------------------------------------
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"_seq_no" : \d+/"_seq_no" : $body._seq_no/ s/"_primary_term" : 1/"_primary_term" : $body._primary_term/]

Only leaf fields can be retrieved with the `stored_field` option. Object fields
can't be returned--if specified, the request fails.