How to do "where not exists" type filtering in Kibana/ELK?

This is easy in Kibana 5 search bar. Just add a filter

!(_exists_:"your_variable") 

you can toggle the filter or write the inverse query as

_exists_:"your_variable"

In Kibana 4 and Kibana 3 you can use this query which is now deprecated

_missing_:"your_variable"  

NOTE: In Elasticsearch 7.x, Kibana now has a pull down to select KQL or Lucene style queries in the search bar. Be mindful that syntax such as _exists_:FIELD is a Lucene syntax and you need to set the pulldown accordingly.

In newer ELK versions (I think after Elasticsearch 6) you should use field:* to check if the field exist and not field:* to check if it's missing.

elastic search reference: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.5/query-dsl-query-string-query.html#_wildcards

! (_exists_:NAME) is not working for me. I use suggestion from:

https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-5-0-0--missing--is-not-working-anymore/64336

NOT _exists_:NAME

UPDATE The problem I faced is that ES syntax forbids spaces after negation operators. Use one of:

NOT _exists_:FIELD
!_exists_:FIELD
-_exists_:FIELD

Check tutorial: https://www.timroes.de/2016/05/29/elasticsearch-kibana-queries-in-depth-tutorial/

NOTE: In Elasticsearch 7.x, Kibana now has a pull down to select KQL or Lucene style queries in the search bar. Be mindful that syntax such as _exists_:FIELD is a Lucene syntax and you need to set the pulldown accordingly.