[[query-dsl-bool-query]]
=== Bool Query

A query that matches documents matching boolean combinations of other
queries. The bool query maps to Lucene `BooleanQuery`. It is built using
one or more boolean clauses, each clause with a typed occurrence. The
occurrence types are:

[cols="<,<",options="header",]
|=======================================================================
|Occur |Description
|`must` |The clause (query) must appear in matching documents and will
contribute to the score.

|`filter` |The clause (query) must appear in matching documents. However unlike
`must` the score of the query will be ignored. Filter clauses are executed
in <<query-filter-context,filter context>>, meaning that scoring is ignored
and clauses are considered for caching.

|`should` |The clause (query) should appear in the matching document. If the
`bool` query is in a <<query-filter-context,query context>> and has a `must` or
`filter` clause then a document will match the `bool` query even if none of the
`should` queries match. In this case these clauses are only used to influence
the score. If the `bool` query is a <<query-filter-context,filter context>>
or has neither `must` or `filter` then at least one of the `should` queries
must match a document for it to match the `bool` query. This behavior may be
explicitly controlled by settings the
<<query-dsl-minimum-should-match,`minimum_should_match`>> parameter.

|`must_not` |The clause (query) must not appear in the matching
documents.  Clauses are executed in <<query-filter-context,filter context>> meaning
that scoring is ignored and clauses are considered for caching. Because scoring is
ignored, a score of `0` for all documents is returned.
|=======================================================================

[IMPORTANT]
.Bool query in filter context
========================================================================
If this query is used in a filter context and it has `should`
clauses then at least one `should` clause is required to match.
========================================================================

The `bool` query takes a _more-matches-is-better_ approach, so the score from
each matching `must` or `should` clause will be added together to provide the
final `_score` for each document.

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
POST _search
{
  "query": {
    "bool" : {
      "must" : {
        "term" : { "user" : "kimchy" }
      },
      "filter": {
        "term" : { "tag" : "tech" }
      },
      "must_not" : {
        "range" : {
          "age" : { "gte" : 10, "lte" : 20 }
        }
      },
      "should" : [
        { "term" : { "tag" : "wow" } },
        { "term" : { "tag" : "elasticsearch" } }
      ],
      "minimum_should_match" : 1,
      "boost" : 1.0
    }
  }
}
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE

==== Scoring with `bool.filter`

Queries specified under the `filter` element have no effect on scoring --
scores are returned as `0`.  Scores are only affected by the query that has
been specified.  For instance, all three of the following queries return
all documents where the `status` field contains the term `active`.

This first query assigns a score of `0` to all documents, as no scoring
query has been specified:

[source,js]
---------------------------------
GET _search
{
  "query": {
    "bool": {
      "filter": {
        "term": {
          "status": "active"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
---------------------------------
// CONSOLE

This `bool` query has a `match_all` query, which assigns a score of `1.0` to
all documents.

[source,js]
---------------------------------
GET _search
{
  "query": {
    "bool": {
      "must": {
        "match_all": {}
      },
      "filter": {
        "term": {
          "status": "active"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
---------------------------------
// CONSOLE

This `constant_score` query behaves in exactly the same way as the second example above.
The `constant_score` query assigns a score of `1.0` to all documents matched
by the filter.

[source,js]
---------------------------------
GET _search
{
  "query": {
    "constant_score": {
      "filter": {
        "term": {
          "status": "active"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
---------------------------------
// CONSOLE

==== Using named queries to see which clauses matched

If you need to know which of the clauses in the bool query matched the documents
returned from the query, you can use
<<search-request-named-queries-and-filters,named queries>> to assign a name to
each clause.