---
title: Lucene expressions language
description: Lucene’s expressions compile a javascript expression to bytecode. They are designed for high-performance custom ranking and sorting functions and are...
url: https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/explore-analyze/scripting/modules-scripting-expression
products:
  - Elasticsearch
---

# Lucene expressions language
Lucene’s expressions compile a `javascript` expression to bytecode. They are designed for high-performance custom ranking and sorting functions and are enabled for `inline` and `stored` scripting by default.

## Performance

Expressions were designed to have competitive performance with custom Lucene code. This performance is due to having low per-document overhead as opposed to other scripting engines: expressions do more "up-front".
This allows for very fast execution, even faster than if you had written a `native` script.

## Syntax

Expressions support a subset of javascript syntax: a single expression.
See the [expressions module documentation](https://lucene.apache.org/core/10_0_0/expressions/index.html?org/apache/lucene/expressions/js/package-summary.md) for details on what operators and functions are available.
Variables in `expression` scripts are available to access:
- document fields, e.g. `doc['myfield'].value`
- variables and methods that the field supports, e.g. `doc['myfield'].empty`
- Parameters passed into the script, e.g. `mymodifier`
- The current document’s score, `_score` (only available when used in a `script_score`)

You can use Expressions scripts for `script_score`, `script_fields`, sort scripts, and numeric aggregation scripts, simply set the `lang` parameter to `expression`.

## Numeric field API


| Expression                   | Description                                                    |
|------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------|
| `doc['field_name'].value`    | The value of the field, as a `double`                          |
| `doc['field_name'].empty`    | A boolean indicating if the field has novalues within the doc. |
| `doc['field_name'].length`   | The number of values in this document.                         |
| `doc['field_name'].min()`    | The minimum value of the field in this document.               |
| `doc['field_name'].max()`    | The maximum value of the field in this document.               |
| `doc['field_name'].median()` | The median value of the field in this document.                |
| `doc['field_name'].avg()`    | The average of the values in this document.                    |
| `doc['field_name'].sum()`    | The sum of the values in this document.                        |

When a document is missing the field completely, by default the value will be treated as `0`. You can treat it as another value instead, e.g. `doc['myfield'].empty ? 100 : doc['myfield'].value`
When a document has multiple values for the field, by default the minimum value is returned. You can choose a different value instead, e.g. `doc['myfield'].sum()`.
When a document is missing the field completely, by default the value will be treated as `0`.
Boolean fields are exposed as numerics, with `true` mapped to `1` and `false` mapped to `0`. For example: `doc['on_sale'].value ? doc['price'].value * 0.5 : doc['price'].value`

## Date field API

Date fields are treated as the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970 and support the Numeric Fields API above, plus access to some date-specific fields:

| Expression                              | Description                                         |
|-----------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------|
| `doc['field_name'].date.centuryOfEra`   | Century (1-2920000)                                 |
| `doc['field_name'].date.dayOfMonth`     | Day (1-31), e.g. `1` for the first of the month.    |
| `doc['field_name'].date.dayOfWeek`      | Day of the week (1-7), e.g. `1` for Monday.         |
| `doc['field_name'].date.dayOfYear`      | Day of the year, e.g. `1` for January 1.            |
| `doc['field_name'].date.era`            | Era: `0` for BC, `1` for AD.                        |
| `doc['field_name'].date.hourOfDay`      | Hour (0-23).                                        |
| `doc['field_name'].date.millisOfDay`    | Milliseconds within the day (0-86399999).           |
| `doc['field_name'].date.millisOfSecond` | Milliseconds within the second (0-999).             |
| `doc['field_name'].date.minuteOfDay`    | Minute within the day (0-1439).                     |
| `doc['field_name'].date.minuteOfHour`   | Minute within the hour (0-59).                      |
| `doc['field_name'].date.monthOfYear`    | Month within the year (1-12), e.g. `1` for January. |
| `doc['field_name'].date.secondOfDay`    | Second within the day (0-86399).                    |
| `doc['field_name'].date.secondOfMinute` | Second within the minute (0-59).                    |
| `doc['field_name'].date.year`           | Year (-292000000 - 292000000).                      |
| `doc['field_name'].date.yearOfCentury`  | Year within the century (1-100).                    |
| `doc['field_name'].date.yearOfEra`      | Year within the era (1-292000000).                  |

The following example shows the difference in years between the `date` fields date0 and date1:
`doc['date1'].date.year - doc['date0'].date.year`

## `geo_point` field API


| Expression                | Description                                                    |
|---------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------|
| `doc['field_name'].empty` | A boolean indicating if the field has novalues within the doc. |
| `doc['field_name'].lat`   | The latitude of the geo point.                                 |
| `doc['field_name'].lon`   | The longitude of the geo point.                                |

The following example computes distance in kilometers from Washington, DC:
`haversin(38.9072, 77.0369, doc['field_name'].lat, doc['field_name'].lon)`
In this example the coordinates could have been passed as parameters to the script, e.g. based on geolocation of the user.

## Limitations

There are a few limitations relative to other script languages:
- Only numeric, `boolean`, `date`, and `geo_point` fields may be accessed
- Stored fields are not available