You're viewing version 1.2 of the OpenSearch documentation. This version is no longer maintained. For the latest version, see the current documentation. For information about OpenSearch version maintenance, see Release Schedule and Maintenance Policy.
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",
"_type": "_doc",
"_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. |
| _type | The document’s type. OpenSearch only supports one type, which is _doc. |
| _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. |