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Quick start: Add data using Elasticsearch APIs

In this quick start guide, you’ll learn how to do the following tasks:

Add a small, non-timestamped dataset to Elasticsearch using Elasticsearch REST APIs.
Run basic searches.

Add data

You add data to Elasticsearch as JSON objects called documents. Elasticsearch stores these documents in searchable indices.

Add a single document

edit

Submit the following indexing request to add a single document to the books index. The request automatically creates the index.

resp = client.index(
    index="books",
    document={
        "name": "Snow Crash",
        "author": "Neal Stephenson",
        "release_date": "1992-06-01",
        "page_count": 470
    },
)
print(resp)

response = client.index(
  index: 'books',
  body: {
    name: 'Snow Crash',
    author: 'Neal Stephenson',
    release_date: '1992-06-01',
    page_count: 470
  }
)
puts response

const response = await client.index({
  index: "books",
  document: {
    name: "Snow Crash",
    author: "Neal Stephenson",
    release_date: "1992-06-01",
    page_count: 470,
  },
});
console.log(response);

POST books/_doc
{"name": "Snow Crash", "author": "Neal Stephenson", "release_date": "1992-06-01", "page_count": 470}

The response includes metadata that Elasticsearch generates for the document including a unique _id for the document within the index.

Expand to see example response

{
  "_index": "books",
  "_id": "O0lG2IsBaSa7VYx_rEia",
  "_version": 1,
  "result": "created",
  "_shards": {
    "total": 2,
    "successful": 2,
    "failed": 0
  },
  "_seq_no": 0,
  "_primary_term": 1
}

Add multiple documents

edit

Use the _bulk endpoint to add multiple documents in one request. Bulk data must be newline-delimited JSON (NDJSON). Each line must end in a newline character (\n), including the last line.

resp = client.bulk(
    operations=[
        {
            "index": {
                "_index": "books"
            }
        },
        {
            "name": "Revelation Space",
            "author": "Alastair Reynolds",
            "release_date": "2000-03-15",
            "page_count": 585
        },
        {
            "index": {
                "_index": "books"
            }
        },
        {
            "name": "1984",
            "author": "George Orwell",
            "release_date": "1985-06-01",
            "page_count": 328
        },
        {
            "index": {
                "_index": "books"
            }
        },
        {
            "name": "Fahrenheit 451",
            "author": "Ray Bradbury",
            "release_date": "1953-10-15",
            "page_count": 227
        },
        {
            "index": {
                "_index": "books"
            }
        },
        {
            "name": "Brave New World",
            "author": "Aldous Huxley",
            "release_date": "1932-06-01",
            "page_count": 268
        },
        {
            "index": {
                "_index": "books"
            }
        },
        {
            "name": "The Handmaids Tale",
            "author": "Margaret Atwood",
            "release_date": "1985-06-01",
            "page_count": 311
        }
    ],
)
print(resp)

response = client.bulk(
  body: [
    {
      index: {
        _index: 'books'
      }
    },
    {
      name: 'Revelation Space',
      author: 'Alastair Reynolds',
      release_date: '2000-03-15',
      page_count: 585
    },
    {
      index: {
        _index: 'books'
      }
    },
    {
      name: '1984',
      author: 'George Orwell',
      release_date: '1985-06-01',
      page_count: 328
    },
    {
      index: {
        _index: 'books'
      }
    },
    {
      name: 'Fahrenheit 451',
      author: 'Ray Bradbury',
      release_date: '1953-10-15',
      page_count: 227
    },
    {
      index: {
        _index: 'books'
      }
    },
    {
      name: 'Brave New World',
      author: 'Aldous Huxley',
      release_date: '1932-06-01',
      page_count: 268
    },
    {
      index: {
        _index: 'books'
      }
    },
    {
      name: 'The Handmaids Tale',
      author: 'Margaret Atwood',
      release_date: '1985-06-01',
      page_count: 311
    }
  ]
)
puts response

const response = await client.bulk({
  operations: [
    {
      index: {
        _index: "books",
      },
    },
    {
      name: "Revelation Space",
      author: "Alastair Reynolds",
      release_date: "2000-03-15",
      page_count: 585,
    },
    {
      index: {
        _index: "books",
      },
    },
    {
      name: "1984",
      author: "George Orwell",
      release_date: "1985-06-01",
      page_count: 328,
    },
    {
      index: {
        _index: "books",
      },
    },
    {
      name: "Fahrenheit 451",
      author: "Ray Bradbury",
      release_date: "1953-10-15",
      page_count: 227,
    },
    {
      index: {
        _index: "books",
      },
    },
    {
      name: "Brave New World",
      author: "Aldous Huxley",
      release_date: "1932-06-01",
      page_count: 268,
    },
    {
      index: {
        _index: "books",
      },
    },
    {
      name: "The Handmaids Tale",
      author: "Margaret Atwood",
      release_date: "1985-06-01",
      page_count: 311,
    },
  ],
});
console.log(response);

POST /_bulk
{ "index" : { "_index" : "books" } }
{"name": "Revelation Space", "author": "Alastair Reynolds", "release_date": "2000-03-15", "page_count": 585}
{ "index" : { "_index" : "books" } }
{"name": "1984", "author": "George Orwell", "release_date": "1985-06-01", "page_count": 328}
{ "index" : { "_index" : "books" } }
{"name": "Fahrenheit 451", "author": "Ray Bradbury", "release_date": "1953-10-15", "page_count": 227}
{ "index" : { "_index" : "books" } }
{"name": "Brave New World", "author": "Aldous Huxley", "release_date": "1932-06-01", "page_count": 268}
{ "index" : { "_index" : "books" } }
{"name": "The Handmaids Tale", "author": "Margaret Atwood", "release_date": "1985-06-01", "page_count": 311}

You should receive a response indicating there were no errors.

Expand to see example response

{
  "errors": false,
  "took": 29,
  "items": [
    {
      "index": {
        "_index": "books",
        "_id": "QklI2IsBaSa7VYx_Qkh-",
        "_version": 1,
        "result": "created",
        "_shards": {
          "total": 2,
          "successful": 2,
          "failed": 0
        },
        "_seq_no": 1,
        "_primary_term": 1,
        "status": 201
      }
    },
    {
      "index": {
        "_index": "books",
        "_id": "Q0lI2IsBaSa7VYx_Qkh-",
        "_version": 1,
        "result": "created",
        "_shards": {
          "total": 2,
          "successful": 2,
          "failed": 0
        },
        "_seq_no": 2,
        "_primary_term": 1,
        "status": 201
      }
    },
    {
      "index": {
        "_index": "books",
        "_id": "RElI2IsBaSa7VYx_Qkh-",
        "_version": 1,
        "result": "created",
        "_shards": {
          "total": 2,
          "successful": 2,
          "failed": 0
        },
        "_seq_no": 3,
        "_primary_term": 1,
        "status": 201
      }
    },
    {
      "index": {
        "_index": "books",
        "_id": "RUlI2IsBaSa7VYx_Qkh-",
        "_version": 1,
        "result": "created",
        "_shards": {
          "total": 2,
          "successful": 2,
          "failed": 0
        },
        "_seq_no": 4,
        "_primary_term": 1,
        "status": 201
      }
    },
    {
      "index": {
        "_index": "books",
        "_id": "RklI2IsBaSa7VYx_Qkh-",
        "_version": 1,
        "result": "created",
        "_shards": {
          "total": 2,
          "successful": 2,
          "failed": 0
        },
        "_seq_no": 5,
        "_primary_term": 1,
        "status": 201
      }
    }
  ]
}

Search data

edit

Indexed documents are available for search in near real-time.

Search all documents

edit

Run the following command to search the books index for all documents:

resp = client.search(
    index="books",
)
print(resp)

response = client.search(
  index: 'books'
)
puts response

const response = await client.search({
  index: "books",
});
console.log(response);

GET books/_search

The _source of each hit contains the original JSON object submitted during indexing.

`match` query

edit

You can use the match query to search for documents that contain a specific value in a specific field. This is the standard query for performing full-text search, including fuzzy matching and phrase searches.

Run the following command to search the books index for documents containing brave in the name field:

resp = client.search(
    index="books",
    query={
        "match": {
            "name": "brave"
        }
    },
)
print(resp)

response = client.search(
  index: 'books',
  body: {
    query: {
      match: {
        name: 'brave'
      }
    }
  }
)
puts response

const response = await client.search({
  index: "books",
  query: {
    match: {
      name: "brave",
    },
  },
});
console.log(response);

GET books/_search
{
  "query": {
    "match": {
      "name": "brave"
    }
  }
}

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Quick start: Add data using Elasticsearch APIs