Getting started with SQL

To start using Elasticsearch SQL, create an index with some data to experiment with:

PUT /library/_bulk?refresh
{"index":{"_id": "Leviathan Wakes"}}
{"name": "Leviathan Wakes", "author": "James S.A. Corey", "release_date": "2011-06-02", "page_count": 561}
{"index":{"_id": "Hyperion"}}
{"name": "Hyperion", "author": "Dan Simmons", "release_date": "1989-05-26", "page_count": 482}
{"index":{"_id": "Dune"}}
{"name": "Dune", "author": "Frank Herbert", "release_date": "1965-06-01", "page_count": 604}

And now you can execute SQL using the SQL search API:

POST /_sql?format=txt
{
  "query": "SELECT * FROM library WHERE release_date < '2000-01-01'"
}

Which should return something along the lines of:

    author     |     name      |  page_count   | release_date
---------------+---------------+---------------+------------------------
Dan Simmons    |Hyperion       |482            |1989-05-26T00:00:00.000Z
Frank Herbert  |Dune           |604            |1965-06-01T00:00:00.000Z

You can also use the SQL CLI. There is a script to start it shipped in the Elasticsearch bin directory:

$ ./bin/elasticsearch-sql-cli

From there you can run the same query:

sql> SELECT * FROM library WHERE release_date < '2000-01-01';
    author     |     name      |  page_count   | release_date
---------------+---------------+---------------+------------------------
Dan Simmons    |Hyperion       |482            |1989-05-26T00:00:00.000Z
Frank Herbert  |Dune           |604            |1965-06-01T00:00:00.000Z