Delete document
Introduced 1.0
If you no longer need a document in your index, you can use the delete document API operation to delete it.
Example
DELETE /sample-index1/_doc/1
Path and HTTP methods
DELETE /<index>/_doc/<_id>
URL parameters
| Parameter | Type | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| <index> | String | The index to delete from. | Yes |
| <_id> | String | The ID of the document to delete. | Yes |
| if_seq_no | Integer | Only perform the delete operation if the document’s version number matches the specified number. | No |
| if_primary_term | Integer | Only perform the delete operation if the document has the specified primary term. | No |
| refresh | Enum | If true, OpenSearch refreshes shards to make the delete operation available to search results. Valid options are true, false, and wait_for, which tells OpenSearch to wait for a refresh before executing the operation. Default is false. | No |
| routing | String | Value used to route the operation to a specific shard. | No |
| timeout | Time | How long to wait for a response from the cluster. Default is 1m. | No |
| version | Integer | The version of the document to delete, which must match the last updated version of the document. | No |
| version_type | Enum | Retrieves a specifically typed document. Available options are external (retrieve the document if the specified version number is greater than the document’s current version) and external_gte (retrieve the document if the specified version number is greater than or equal to the document’s current version). For example, to delete version 3 of a document, use /_doc/1?version=3&version_type=external. | No |
| wait_for_active_shards | String | The number of active shards that must be available before OpenSearch processes the delete request. Default is 1 (only the primary shard). Set to all or a positive integer. Values greater than 1 require replicas. For example, if you specify a value of 3, the index must have two replicas distributed across two additional nodes for the operation to succeed. | No |
Response
{
"_index": "sample-index1",
"_id": "1",
"_version": 2,
"result": "deleted",
"_shards": {
"total": 2,
"successful": 2,
"failed": 0
},
"_seq_no": 1,
"_primary_term": 15
}
Response body fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| _index | The name of the index. |
| _id | The document’s ID. |
| _version | The document’s version. |
| _result | The result of the delete operation. |
| _shards | Detailed information about the cluster’s shards. |
| total | The total number of shards. |
| successful | The number of shards OpenSearch succssfully deleted the document from. |
| failed | The number of shards OpenSearch failed to delete the document from. |
| _seq_no | The sequence number assigned when the document was indexed. |
| _primary_term | The primary term assigned when the document was indexed. |