[[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. Queries can
also have filters associated with them such as the
<<query-dsl-filtered-query,filtered>> or
<<query-dsl-constant-score-query,constant_score>>
queries, with specific filter queries.

Think of the Query DSL as an AST of queries. Certain queries can contain
other queries (like the
<<query-dsl-bool-query,bool>> query), others can
contain filters (like the
<<query-dsl-constant-score-query,constant_score>>),
and some can contain both a query and a filter (like the
<<query-dsl-filtered-query,filtered>>). Each of
those can contain *any* query of the list of queries or *any* filter
from the list of filters, resulting in the ability to build quite
complex (and interesting) queries.

Both queries and filters 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 components (queries and filters) that can form the
AST one can use.

Filters are very handy since they perform an order of magnitude better
than plain queries since no scoring is performed and they are
automatically cached.

--

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

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