# \_type is indexed but NOT stored. What does this mean?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/-type-is-indexed-but-not-stored-what-does-this-mean/99224>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [September 3, 2017, 2:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/-type-is-indexed-but-not-stored-what-does-this-mean/99224 "2017-09-03T14:39:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![vamsyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8dc957/32.png) [@vamsyr](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/vamsyr)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2017, 2:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/-type-is-indexed-but-not-stored-what-does-this-mean/99224/1 "2017-09-03T14:39:37Z")

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I understood that in elastic, indexing means making it searchable.

I am confused at the point - indexed but not stored? After indexing and NOT storing, how can we search the one that is not stored? If we search such ones, where elastic will search or look for them if they are not stored at all?

Hope my question is clear to you all. We need to store a value somewhere so that it is searchable later. That is my understanding. In the case, it is indexed but not stored means, how is it searchable later as it is not stored anywhere?

Please clarify.

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**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2017, 8:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/-type-is-indexed-but-not-stored-what-does-this-mean/99224/2 "2017-09-03T20:01:04Z")

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It means you can search on the value, but not return the original value.  
See [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/5.5/mapping-store.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/5.5/mapping-store.html)

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**Author:** ![vamsyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8dc957/32.png) [@vamsyr](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/vamsyr)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 4:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/-type-is-indexed-but-not-stored-what-does-this-mean/99224/3 "2017-09-04T04:24:56Z")

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Thank you Mark.

But I want to know, if it is NOT stored, then how it can be queried. To query it, it should be stored somewhere right?

Can you please clarify? Thank you.

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**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 10:03am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/-type-is-indexed-but-not-stored-what-does-this-mean/99224/4 "2017-09-04T10:03:10Z")

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Because it's stored in the inverted index structure that lucene creates, so it can search on it easily.

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**Author:** ![vamsyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8dc957/32.png) [@vamsyr](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/vamsyr)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 3:50am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/-type-is-indexed-but-not-stored-what-does-this-mean/99224/5 "2017-09-05T03:50:27Z")

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Now it is clear. Thank you very much Mark.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2017, 3:50am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/-type-is-indexed-but-not-stored-what-does-this-mean/99224/6 "2017-10-03T03:50:29Z")

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