[role="xpack"]
[[ml-get-category]]
=== Get Categories API
++++
<titleabbrev>Get Categories</titleabbrev>
++++

The get categories API enables you to retrieve job results for one or more
categories.


==== Request

`GET _xpack/ml/anomaly_detectors/<job_id>/results/categories` +

`GET _xpack/ml/anomaly_detectors/<job_id>/results/categories/<category_id>`

==== Description

For more information about categories, see
{xpack-ref}/ml-configuring-categories.html[Categorizing Log Messages].
//<<ml-configuring-categories>>.

==== Path Parameters

`job_id`::
  (string) Identifier for the job.

`category_id`::
  (long) Identifier for the category. If you do not specify this optional parameter,
  the API returns information about all categories in the job.


==== Request Body

`page`::
`from`:::
  (integer) Skips the specified number of categories.
`size`:::
  (integer) Specifies the maximum number of categories to obtain.


==== Results

The API returns the following information:

`categories`::
  (array) An array of category objects. For more information, see
  <<ml-results-categories,Categories>>.


==== Authorization

You must have `monitor_ml`, `monitor`, `manage_ml`, or `manage` cluster
privileges to use this API. You also need `read` index privilege on the index
that stores the results. The `machine_learning_admin` and `machine_learning_user`
roles provide these privileges. For more information, see
{xpack-ref}/security-privileges.html[Security Privileges] and
{xpack-ref}/built-in-roles.html[Built-in Roles].
//<<security-privileges>> and <<built-in-roles>>.


==== Examples

The following example gets information about one category for the
`it_ops_new_logs` job:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
GET _xpack/ml/anomaly_detectors/it_ops_new_logs/results/categories
{
  "page":{
    "size": 1
  }
}
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[skip:todo]

In this example, the API returns the following information:
[source,js]
----
{
  "count": 11,
  "categories": [
    {
      "job_id": "it_ops_new_logs",
      "category_id": 1,
      "terms": "Actual Transaction Already Voided Reversed hostname dbserver.acme.com physicalhost esxserver1.acme.com vmhost app1.acme.com",
      "regex": ".*?Actual.+?Transaction.+?Already.+?Voided.+?Reversed.+?hostname.+?dbserver.acme.com.+?physicalhost.+?esxserver1.acme.com.+?vmhost.+?app1.acme.com.*",
      "max_matching_length": 137,
      "examples": [
        "Actual Transaction Already Voided / Reversed;hostname=dbserver.acme.com;physicalhost=esxserver1.acme.com;vmhost=app1.acme.com"
      ]
    }
  ]
}
----