Input Parameters - Company Search API

Required Parameters

You must provide either the query or the sql parameter (but not both) to receive a successful response. We recommend using the Elasticsearch query parameter for most use cases.

When you execute an API request, the query runs directly against our Company Dataset without any cleaning or preprocessing. This means that you have a lot of freedom to explore the dataset and return the perfect records for your particular use case. It also means that you will need to understand the available fields to make successful queries.

Use the field descriptions on the Company Schema and the underlying Elasticsearch Mapping to help write better queries.

To help you identify how to best query for specific sub-entities (schools, companies, and locations), we offer a suite of Cleaner APIs.

We also provide a free Query Builder Tool to help write and test Elasticsearch queries for our Search APIs.

Optional Parameters

`query`

Type	Description	Example
`Object`	An Elasticsearch (v7.7) query involving our company fields. See our underlying Elasticsearch mapping for reference.	`{"query": {"term": {"name": "people data labs"}}}`

Elasticsearch Query Limitations

We accept the following Elasticsearch query types:

We've disabled most specialized options, such as boosting and custom scoring, and we do not allow aggregations.

Any array in a query (such as a terms array) will have a hard limit of 100 elements. If a request goes over this limit, it will fail.

`sql`

Type	Description	Example
`String`	An SQL query of the format: `SELECT * FROM company WHERE XXX`, where XXX is a standard SQL boolean query involving our company fields.	`SELECT * FROM company WHERE name='people data labs'`

SQL Query Limitations

We execute SQL queries using Elasticsearch SQL.

We accept any SQL query that translates to the above Elasticsearch query types through the ES SQL translate API.

We will ignore any use of column selections or the LIMIT keyword.

We limit the number of wildcard terms (using LIKE with %) to 20 per request. If a request goes over this limit, it will fail.

`size`

Type	Description	Default	Example
`Integer`	The maximum number of matched records to return for this query if they exist. Must be between `1` and `100`.	`1`	`100`

`from`

❗️
Legacy Field
The from parameter is deprecated. Use scroll_token instead.

Type	Description	Default	Example
`Integer`	[LEGACY] An offset value for paginating between batches, which must between `0` and `9999`. We will execute pagination for a maximum of 10,000 records per query. Note: You cannot use `from` and `scroll_token` in the same request.	`0`	`100`

`scroll_token`

Type	Description	Default	Example
`String`	Each search API response returns a `scroll_token`. Include it in the next request to fetch the next `size` matching records. Unlike the legacy `from` parameter, you can use this parameter for any number of records. Note: You cannot use `from` and `scroll_token` in the same request.		`104$14.278746`

A scroll_token returns in every Company Search API response and serves as a placeholder or bookmark for the last record received. For queries with more results than can fit in a single API response (see the size field), use the scroll_token to get the next batch of results.

For example, if you send a query to the Company Search API that has 10,000 matches, you will need multiple API calls to retrieve all the records. The scroll_token represents how far along you are in that list of records.

Generally, the way to use scroll_token is:

Send a query to the Company Search API.
Get a response back containing one batch of records as well as a scroll_token response value (if you have already retrieved all the available records in this batch, then the scroll_token value will be null).
Use the same query from Step 1 and the scroll_token you just received to make another request to the Company Search API.
Get another response back with the next batch of records and a new scroll_token value.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have gotten the desired number of records back or until the scroll_token value is null.

For a detailed working example of this process, see the following code example: Bulk Retrieval.

`titlecase`

Type	Description	Default	Example
`Boolean`	All text in API responses returns as lowercase by default. Setting `titlecase` to `true` will titlecase any records returned instead.	`false`	`true`

`pretty`

Type	Description	Default	Example
`Boolean`	Whether the output should have human-readable indentation.	`false`	`true`

`api_key`

Type	Description	Default	Example
`String`	Your secret API key.

Your API Key must be included in either the request header or the api_key parameter. For more information about request authentication, see the Authentication page.