elasticsearch/docs/reference/search/search.asciidoc

[[search-search]]
=== Search

The search API 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
<<search-uri-request,query string as a parameter>>, or using a
<<search-request-body,request body>>.

["float",id="search-multi-index"]
==== Multi-Index

All search APIs can be applied across multiple indices with support for
the <<multi-index,multi index syntax>>. For
example, we can search on all documents within the twitter index:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
GET /twitter/_search?q=user:kimchy
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[setup:twitter]

We can also search all documents with a certain tag across several indices
(for example, when there is one index per user):

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
GET /kimchy,elasticsearch/_search?q=tag:wow
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[s/^/PUT kimchy\nPUT elasticsearch\n/]

Or we can search across all available indices using `_all`:

[source,js]
---------------------------------------------------
GET /_all/_search?q=tag:wow
---------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[setup:twitter]

[float]
[[search-partial-responses]]
==== Partial responses
To ensure fast responses, the search API will respond with partial results if one or more shards fail. See <<shard-failures, Shard failures>> for more information.