ES|QL multivalued fieldsedit

ES|QL is fine reading from multivalued fields:

POST /mv/_bulk?refresh
{ "index" : {} }
{ "a": 1, "b": [2, 1] }
{ "index" : {} }
{ "a": 2, "b": 3 }

POST /_query
{
  "query": "FROM mv"
}

Multivalued fields come back as a JSON array:

{
  "columns": [
    { "name": "a", "type": "long"},
    { "name": "b", "type": "long"}
  ],
  "values": [
    [1, [1, 2]],
    [2,      3]
  ]
}

The relative order of values in a multivalued field is undefined. They’ll frequently be in ascending order but don’t rely on that.

Duplicate valuesedit

Some field types, like keyword remove duplicate values on write:

PUT /mv
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "b": {"type": "keyword"}
    }
  }
}

POST /mv/_bulk?refresh
{ "index" : {} }
{ "a": 1, "b": ["foo", "foo", "bar"] }
{ "index" : {} }
{ "a": 2, "b": ["bar", "bar"] }

POST /_query
{
  "query": "FROM mv"
}

And ES|QL sees that removal:

{
  "columns": [
    { "name": "a", "type": "long"},
    { "name": "b", "type": "keyword"}
  ],
  "values": [
    [1, ["bar", "foo"]],
    [2,          "bar"]
  ]
}

But other types, like long don’t remove duplicates.

PUT /mv
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "b": {"type": "long"}
    }
  }
}

POST /mv/_bulk?refresh
{ "index" : {} }
{ "a": 1, "b": [2, 2, 1] }
{ "index" : {} }
{ "a": 2, "b": [1, 1] }

POST /_query
{
  "query": "FROM mv"
}

And ES|QL also sees that:

{
  "columns": [
    { "name": "a", "type": "long"},
    { "name": "b", "type": "long"}
  ],
  "values": [
    [1, [1, 2, 2]],
    [2,    [1, 1]]
  ]
}

This is all at the storage layer. If you store duplicate `long`s and then convert them to strings the duplicates will stay:

PUT /mv
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "b": {"type": "long"}
    }
  }
}

POST /mv/_bulk?refresh
{ "index" : {} }
{ "a": 1, "b": [2, 2, 1] }
{ "index" : {} }
{ "a": 2, "b": [1, 1] }

POST /_query
{
  "query": "FROM mv | EVAL b=TO_STRING(b)"
}
{
  "columns": [
    { "name": "a", "type": "long"},
    { "name": "b", "type": "keyword"}
  ],
  "values": [
    [1, ["1", "2", "2"]],
    [2,      ["1", "1"]]
  ]
}

Functionsedit

Unless otherwise documented functions will return null when applied to a multivalued field. This behavior may change in a later version.

POST /mv/_bulk?refresh
{ "index" : {} }
{ "a": 1, "b": [2, 1] }
{ "index" : {} }
{ "a": 2, "b": 3 }

POST /_query
{
  "query": "FROM mv | EVAL b + 2, a + b"
}
{
  "columns": [
    { "name": "a",   "type": "long"},
    { "name": "b",   "type": "long"},
    { "name": "b+2", "type": "long"},
    { "name": "a+b", "type": "long"}
  ],
  "values": [
    [1, [1, 2], null, null],
    [2,      3,    5,    5]
  ]
}

Work around this limitation by converting the field to single value with one of:

POST /_query
{
  "query": "FROM mv | EVAL b=MV_MIN(b) | EVAL b + 2, a + b"
}
{
  "columns": [
    { "name": "a",   "type": "long"},
    { "name": "b",   "type": "long"},
    { "name": "b+2", "type": "long"},
    { "name": "a+b", "type": "long"}
  ],
  "values": [
    [1, 1, 3, 2],
    [2, 3, 5, 5]
  ]
}