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Index

The index mapping parameter controls whether a field is searchable by including it in the inverted index. When set to true, the field is indexed and available for queries. When set to false, the field is stored in the document but not indexed, making it non-searchable. If you do not need to search a particular field, disabling indexing for that field can reduce index size and improve indexing performance. For example, you can disable indexing on large text fields or metadata that is only used for display.

By default, all field types are indexed.

Supported data types

The index mapping parameter can be applied to the following data types:

Enabling indexing on a field

The following request creates an index named products with a description field that is indexed (the default behavior):

PUT /products
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "description": {
        "type": "text"
      }
    }
  }
}

Index a document using the following request:

PUT /products/_doc/1
{
  "description": "This product has a searchable description."
}

Query the description field:

POST /products/_search
{
  "query": {
    "match": {
      "description": "searchable"
    }
  }
}

The following response confirms that the indexed document was successfully matched by the query:

{
  ...
  "hits": {
    "total": {
      "value": 1,
      "relation": "eq"
    },
    "max_score": 0.2876821,
    "hits": [
      {
        "_index": "products",
        "_id": "1",
        "_score": 0.2876821,
        "_source": {
          "description": "This product has a searchable description."
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Disabling indexing on a field

Create an index named products-no-index with a description field that is not indexed:

PUT /products-no-index
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "description": {
        "type": "text",
        "index": false
      }
    }
  }
}

Index a document using the following request:

PUT /products-no-index/_doc/1
{
  "description": "This product has a non-searchable description."
}

Query products-no-index using the description field:

POST /products-no-index/_search
{
  "query": {
    "match": {
      "description": "non-searchable"
    }
  }
}

The following error response indicates that the search query failed because the description field is not indexed:

{
  "error": {
    "root_cause": [
      {
        "type": "query_shard_exception",
        "reason": "failed to create query: Cannot search on field [description] since it is not indexed.",
        "index": "products-no-index",
        "index_uuid": "yX2F4En1RqOBbf3YWihGCQ"
      }
    ],
    "type": "search_phase_execution_exception",
    "reason": "all shards failed",
    "phase": "query",
    "grouped": true,
    "failed_shards": [
      {
        "shard": 0,
        "index": "products-no-index",
        "node": "0tmy2tf7TKW8qCmya9sG2g",
        "reason": {
          "type": "query_shard_exception",
          "reason": "failed to create query: Cannot search on field [description] since it is not indexed.",
          "index": "products-no-index",
          "index_uuid": "yX2F4En1RqOBbf3YWihGCQ",
          "caused_by": {
            "type": "illegal_argument_exception",
            "reason": "Cannot search on field [description] since it is not indexed."
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "status": 400
}
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