Thanks for the detailed reply. I have been a bit inflammatory explaining my problem. I appreciate that for queries which are expected to be re-run, it is useful

Thanks for the detailed reply. I have been a bit inflammatory explaining my problem. I appreciate that for queries which are expected to be re-run, it is useful to have an appropriate index. What I see from your proposal though is that the work for building the same query is split over re-indexing plus another now slightly less complex query. What I have missed in Elasticsearch is the ease of expressing a data problem. I am also no stranger to learning new languages when needed. You might think differently, but I am of the opinion that the problem that I described translates a lot more easily into SQL. What I need in this context is to have a language and tool where it is easy to try lots of different queries in succession; to be able to get a feeling for how the data works and test hypotheses. I haven’t been able to do this in Elasticsearch. I am not saying that there’s nothing which Elasticsearch is good for, but it’s just about using the right tool for the job.