# \_source vs stored fields **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [June 8, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/-source-vs-stored-fields/8025 "2012-06-08T20:00:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boaz\_Leskes](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/boaz_leskes/32/723_2.png) [@Boaz\_Leskes](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Boaz_Leskes)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/-source-vs-stored-fields/8025/1 "2012-06-08T20:00:32Z")
Hi, ElasticSearch supports two ways of storing data. Every field has a store option and there is a special \_source fields which stores the original JSON. I was wondering what are the rule thumbs to choose the one over the other (or both?) - performance being the most important factor. Our application needs to support for two main use cases: 1. Straight forward searching, where full documents are returned, with hit highlighting. 2. Faceting where we need access to document tokens and metadata fields like date. Thanks for your advice, Boaz ---
**Author:** ![Clinton\_Gormley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@Clinton\_Gormley](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Clinton_Gormley)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 9:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/-source-vs-stored-fields/8025/2 "2012-06-08T21:58:24Z")
Hi Boaz > Our application needs to support for two main use cases: > > 1. Straight forward searching, where full documents are returned, with > hit highlighting. > 2. Faceting where we need access to document tokens and metadata > fields like date. You don't need \_stored fields for either of these. Also, take a look at: [https://groups.google.com/d/topic/elasticsearch/j8cfbv-j73g/discussion](https://groups.google.com/d/topic/elasticsearch/j8cfbv-j73g/discussion) clint ---
**Author:** ![Boaz\_Leskes](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/boaz_leskes/32/723_2.png) [@Boaz\_Leskes](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Boaz_Leskes)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2012, 11:27am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/-source-vs-stored-fields/8025/3 "2012-06-09T11:27:20Z")
Hi Clint, Thank you for the reply. I was wondering how this relates to the field cache - does it store the content of the \_source field or does store the tokenized version of regular fields (or maybe I'm completely off thinking it's related). Cheers, Boaz On Friday, June 8, 2012 11:58:24 PM UTC+2, Clinton Gormley wrote: > Hi Boaz > > > Our application needs to support for two main use cases: > > > > 1. Straight forward searching, where full documents are returned, with > > hit highlighting. > > 2. Faceting where we need access to document tokens and metadata > > fields like date. > > You don't need \_stored fields for either of these. Also, take a look > at: > [https://groups.google.com/d/topic/elasticsearch/j8cfbv-j73g/discussion](https://groups.google.com/d/topic/elasticsearch/j8cfbv-j73g/discussion) > > clint ---
**Author:** ![Clinton\_Gormley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@Clinton\_Gormley](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Clinton_Gormley)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2012, 10:06am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/-source-vs-stored-fields/8025/4 "2012-06-10T10:06:18Z")
Hi Boaz > Thank you for the reply. I was wondering how this relates to the field > cache - does it store the content of the \_source field or does store > the tokenized version of regular fields (or maybe I'm completely off > thinking it's related). As I understand it, the field cache stores tokens, so the \_source field or store parameter are irrelevant, as both of these just store the original value, not the tokenized value. clint ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 3:25am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/-source-vs-stored-fields/8025/5 "2017-07-06T03:25:03Z")