[[query-dsl]]
= Query DSL

[partintro]
--
*elasticsearch* provides a full Query DSL based on JSON to define
queries. In general, there are basic queries such as
<<query-dsl-term-query,term>> or
<<query-dsl-prefix-query,prefix>>. There are
also compound queries like the
<<query-dsl-bool-query,bool>> query.

While queries have scoring capabilities, in some contexts they will
only be used to filter the result set, such as in the
<<query-dsl-filtered-query,filtered>> or
<<query-dsl-constant-score-query,constant_score>>
queries.

Think of the Query DSL as an AST of queries.
Some queries can be used by themselves like the
<<query-dsl-term-query,term>> query but other queries can contain
queries (like the <<query-dsl-bool-query,bool>> query), and each
of these composite queries can contain *any* query of the list of
queries, resulting in the ability to build quite
complex (and interesting) queries.

Queries can be used in different APIs. For example,
within a <<search-request-query,search query>>, or
as an <<search-aggregations-bucket-filter-aggregation,aggregation filter>>.
This section explains the queries that can form the AST one can use.

--

include::query-dsl/index.asciidoc[]