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Jul 30, 2025
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ESQL: Update text formats documentation #2307

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ESQL: Update text formats documentation
ivancea Jul 29, 2025
8e376d7
Moved tip to table description column
ivancea Jul 29, 2025
9b7e41d
Divided into 3 tables
ivancea Jul 29, 2025
f5293c0
Added async headers info
ivancea Jul 29, 2025
88a63b1
Add a format explicit example
ivancea Jul 29, 2025
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Merge branch 'main' into ivancea-esql-text-formats
ivancea Jul 29, 2025
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Merge branch 'main' into ivancea-esql-text-formats
ivancea Jul 30, 2025
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40 changes: 34 additions & 6 deletions explore-analyze/query-filter/languages/esql-rest.md
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Expand Up @@ -60,26 +60,49 @@ POST /_query?format=txt

{{esql}} can return the data in the following human readable and binary formats. You can set the format by specifying the `format` parameter in the URL or by setting the `Accept` or `Content-Type` HTTP header.

For example:

```console
POST /_query?format=yaml
```

::::{note}
The URL parameter takes precedence over the HTTP headers. If neither is specified then the response is returned in the same format as the request.
::::

#### Structured formats

Complete responses with metadata. Useful for automatic parsing.

| `format` | HTTP header | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Human readable |
| `csv` | `text/csv` | [Comma-separated values](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values) |
| `json` | `application/json` | [JSON](https://www.json.org/) (JavaScript Object Notation) human-readable format |
| `yaml` | `application/yaml` | [YAML](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAML) (YAML Ain’t Markup Language) human-readable format |
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Suggested change
| `yaml` | `application/yaml` | [YAML](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAML) (YAML Ain’t Markup Language) human-readable format |
| `yaml` | `application/yaml` | [YAML](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAML) human-readable format |

nit: not sure if it's useful to provide the recursive acronym 😄

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I also don't think it adds much, but we have it in every other format, so I'd say to keep it, even if just for normalization and flavor 👀

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nothing wrong with a bit of flavor 🫡


#### Tabular formats

Query results only, without metadata. Useful for quick and manual data previews.

| `format` | HTTP header | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `csv` | `text/csv` | [Comma-separated values](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values) |
| `tsv` | `text/tab-separated-values` | [Tab-separated values](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tab-separated_values) |
| `txt` | `text/plain` | CLI-like representation |
| `yaml` | `application/yaml` | [YAML](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAML) (YAML Ain’t Markup Language) human-readable format |
| Binary |

::::{tip}
The `csv` format accepts a formatting URL query attribute, `delimiter`, which indicates which character should be used to separate the CSV values. It defaults to comma (`,`) and cannot take any of the following values: double quote (`"`), carriage-return (`\r`) and new-line (`\n`). The tab (`\t`) can also not be used. Use the `tsv` format instead.
::::

#### Binary formats

Compact binary encoding. To be used by applications.

| `format` | HTTP header | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `cbor` | `application/cbor` | [Concise Binary Object Representation](https://cbor.io/) |
| `smile` | `application/smile` | [Smile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile_(data_interchange_format)) binary data format similarto CBOR |
| `arrow` | `application/vnd.apache.arrow.stream` | **Experimental.** [Apache Arrow](https://arrow.apache.org/) dataframes, [IPC streaming format](https://arrow.apache.org/docs/format/Columnar.html#ipc-streaming-format) |

The `csv` format accepts a formatting URL query attribute, `delimiter`, which indicates which character should be used to separate the CSV values. It defaults to comma (`,`) and cannot take any of the following values: double quote (`"`), carriage-return (`\r`) and new-line (`\n`). The tab (`\t`) can also not be used. Use the `tsv` format instead.


### Filtering using {{es}} Query DSL [esql-rest-filtering]

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -322,3 +345,8 @@ Use the [{{esql}} async query delete API](https://www.elastic.co/docs/api/doc/el
```console
DELETE /_query/async/FmdMX2pIang3UWhLRU5QS0lqdlppYncaMUpYQ05oSkpTc3kwZ21EdC1tbFJXQToxOTI=
```

::::{note}
You will also receive the async ID and running status in the `X-Elasticsearch-Async-Id` and `X-Elasticsearch-Async-Is-Running` HTTP headers of the response, respectively.
Useful if you use a tabular text format like `txt`, `csv` or `tsv`, as you won't receive those fields in the body there.
::::
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