How do I search an array that's nested in an array of objects in Elastic? - elasticsearch

Question

I have an Elastic index that contains objects structured like this:
{
dogs: [
{
name: 'wiener dog',
id: 2,
cats: [
{
name: 'mean cat',
id: 5,
},
...
],
},
...
],
...
}
My question is: How do I search against this index for all documents that include a particular id in cats? A single match is fine.
What I have tried: I have tried many different queries, including nesting on dogs, and nesting on both dogs and cats. I have tried accessing the property directly via dogs.cats.id, and all combinations of the above. Here is an example in NEST:
query &= mst.Nested(n => n
.Path("dogs")
.Query(q => q
.Nested(n => n
.Path("dogs.cats")
.Query(q => q
.Terms(t => t
.Field("dogs.cats.id")
.Terms(catIds.ToList())
)
)
)
)
);
I have also tried with a single Nested with Field set to cats.id with no luck.
Any help here would be greatly appreciated. Changing the data structure at this point would be a much larger effort, and would be avoided if possible. Thanks!

Answer 1

From your information, I assume that the use of NestedQuery is ideal.
PUT bug_reports
{
"mappings": {
"properties": {
"dogs": {
"type": "nested",
"properties": {
"cats": {
"type": "nested"
}
}
}
}
}
}
POST bug_reports/_doc/1
{
"dogs": [
{
"name": "wiener dog",
"id": 1,
"cats": [
{
"name":"red cat",
"id": 4
},
{
"name":"mean cat",
"id": 5
}
]
}
]
}
POST bug_reports/_doc/2
{
"dogs": [
{
"name": "none dog",
"id": 2,
"cats": [
{
"name":"mean cat",
"id": 5
}
]
}
]
}
GET bug_reports/_search?filter_path=hits.hits
{
"query": {
"nested": {
"path": "dogs",
"query": {
"bool": {
"must": [
{
"nested": {
"path": "dogs.cats",
"query": {
"terms": {
"dogs.cats.id": [
4
]
}
}
}
},
{
"nested": {
"path": "dogs.cats",
"query": {
"terms": {
"dogs.cats.id": [
5
]
}
}
}
}
]
}
}
}
}
}