Briefly, this error occurs when you try to use an array of values in a term query in Elasticsearch, which is not supported. Term queries are designed to match exact values, not multiple values. To resolve this issue, you can use the ‘terms’ query instead of ‘term’ if you want to match multiple values. Alternatively, you can use a ‘bool’ query with multiple ‘term’ queries inside it, each matching a different value. This way, you can search for multiple exact values in your Elasticsearch data.
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This guide will help you check for common problems that cause this log to appear. It’s important to understand the issues related to this error in Elasticsearch, so to get started, read the general overview on common issues and tips related to: query and index.
Background
Term query returns documents that contain an exact term in a provided field. You cannot use term query to search an array of field values.
If you want to search for multiple values, you should use terms query instead of term query.
How to reproduce this exception
Index mapping:
First, let’s create an index with the following mapping, which contains a single field called “name” of keyword type.
PUT /my-index
{
"mappings": {
"properties": {
"name": {
"type": "keyword"
}
}
}
}
Index data:
Then, we index some sample data in the index we just created.
PUT /my-index/_doc/1?pretty
{
"name": "Opster"
}
PUT /my-index/_doc/2?pretty
{
"name": "Elasticsearch"
}Search query:
Now let’s try to search for multiple values using the term query below:
POST /my-index/_search
{
"query": {
"term": {
"name": [
"Opster",
"Elasticsearch"
]
}
}
}Search result:
Doing so, Elasticsearch is going to throw an error stating that the term query does not support an array of values.
{
"error": {
"root_cause": [
{
"type": "parsing_exception",
"reason": "[term] query does not support array of values",
"line": 4,
"col": 15
}
],
"type": "parsing_exception",
"reason": "[term] query does not support array of values",
"line": 4,
"col": 15
},
"status": 400
}How to fix this exception
If you want to search for multiple values, you should use terms query instead.
Use terms query:
POST /my-index/_search
{
"query": {
"terms": {
"name": [
"Opster",
"Elasticsearch"
]
}
}
}Overview
In Elasticsearch, an index (plural: indices) contains a schema and can have one or more shards and replicas. An Elasticsearch index is divided into shards and each shard is an instance of a Lucene index.
Indices are used to store the documents in dedicated data structures corresponding to the data type of fields. For example, text fields are stored inside an inverted index whereas numeric and geo fields are stored inside BKD trees.
Examples
Create index
The following example is based on Elasticsearch version 5.x onwards. An index with two shards, each having one replica will be created with the name test_index1
PUT /test_index1?pretty
{
"settings" : {
"number_of_shards" : 2,
"number_of_replicas" : 1
},
"mappings" : {
"properties" : {
"tags" : { "type" : "keyword" },
"updated_at" : { "type" : "date" }
}
}
}List indices
All the index names and their basic information can be retrieved using the following command:
GET _cat/indices?v
Index a document
Let’s add a document in the index with the command below:
PUT test_index1/_doc/1
{
"tags": [
"opster",
"elasticsearch"
],
"date": "01-01-2020"
}Query an index
GET test_index1/_search
{
"query": {
"match_all": {}
}
}Query multiple indices
It is possible to search multiple indices with a single request. If it is a raw HTTP request, index names should be sent in comma-separated format, as shown in the example below, and in the case of a query via a programming language client such as python or Java, index names are to be sent in a list format.
GET test_index1,test_index2/_search
Delete indices
DELETE test_index1
Common problems
- It is good practice to define the settings and mapping of an Index wherever possible because if this is not done, Elasticsearch tries to automatically guess the data type of fields at the time of indexing. This automatic process may have disadvantages, such as mapping conflicts, duplicate data and incorrect data types being set in the index. If the fields are not known in advance, it’s better to use dynamic index templates.
- Elasticsearch supports wildcard patterns in Index names, which sometimes aids with querying multiple indices, but can also be very destructive too. For example, It is possible to delete all the indices in a single command using the following commands:
DELETE /*
To disable this, you can add the following lines in the elasticsearch.yml:
action.destructive_requires_name: true
Log Context
Log “[term] query does not support array of values” class name is TermQueryBuilder.java. We extracted the following from Elasticsearch source code for those seeking an in-depth context :
} else if (token.isValue()) {
throwParsingExceptionOnMultipleFields(NAME; parser.getTokenLocation(); fieldName; parser.currentName());
fieldName = currentFieldName;
value = maybeConvertToBytesRef(parser.objectBytes());
} else if (token == XContentParser.Token.START_ARRAY) {
throw new ParsingException(parser.getTokenLocation(); "[term] query does not support array of values");
}
} TermQueryBuilder termQuery = new TermQueryBuilder(fieldName; value);
termQuery.boost(boost);
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