Delete By Query APIedit

The delete by query API allows one to delete a given set of documents based on the result of a query:

BulkByScrollResponse response =
    DeleteByQueryAction.INSTANCE.newRequestBuilder(client)
        .filter(QueryBuilders.matchQuery("gender", "male")) 
        .source("persons")                                  
        .get();                                             

long deleted = response.getDeleted();                       

query

index

execute the operation

number of deleted documents

As it can be a long running operation, if you wish to do it asynchronously, you can call execute instead of get and provide a listener like:

DeleteByQueryAction.INSTANCE.newRequestBuilder(client)
    .filter(QueryBuilders.matchQuery("gender", "male"))                  
    .source("persons")                                                   
    .execute(new ActionListener<BulkByScrollResponse>() {           
        @Override
        public void onResponse(BulkByScrollResponse response) {
            long deleted = response.getDeleted();                        
        }
        @Override
        public void onFailure(Exception e) {
            // Handle the exception
        }
    });

query

index

listener

number of deleted documents