# Best practice for handling \_ids in get and search results **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [November 30, 2021, 1:15am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-practice-for-handling-ids-in-get-and-search-results/290500 "2021-11-30T01:15:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davestewart](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/davestewart/32/97621_2.png) [@davestewart](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/davestewart)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 1:15am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-practice-for-handling-ids-in-get-and-search-results/290500/1 "2021-11-30T01:15:17Z")
Hello, Frontend engineer here, slowly improving at using Elasticsearch. Does anyone have any advice on how to best work with document `_id`s, specifically with regards to sending them to the front end after a `_search` or `_get` along with the `_source` data? The application I've inherited has had various approaches applied; stored copies of the `_id` as `_source.id`, mixing in `_id` as part of the returned results, etc, etc. Note that we have our own Express back end which calls Elasticsearch, then sends flattened results to the front end like so: ```auto { id: hit._id, ...hit._source } ``` Are there any best practices, specifically with regards to a fairly general CRUD app? Clearly we need the `_id` in order to make updates, and we would like to find a balance between sending back clean data we can pass around the app, and not writing code which would make a more experienced Elastic practitioner wince. It is clearly not as straightforward as it would have been with SQL. Thanks, Dave ---
**Author:** ![elasticforme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f05b48/32.png) [@elasticforme](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/elasticforme)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 1:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-practice-for-handling-ids-in-get-and-search-results/290500/2 "2021-11-30T01:34:01Z")
I am no expert in this coding at all. but just use python to update few million document and added a field to it. used \_id to update. 1. used elasticsearch\_dsl to retrieve only part of data from elasticsearch. 2. calculated new field. 3. created update document and use elasticsearch bulk update to update document on same index where I am reading from. for example from elasticsearch import Elasticsearch, helpers from elasticsearch\_dsl import Search elastic\_output = Elasticsearch([hostnames], http\_auth=('elastic', 'elastic'), port=9200 client = Elasticsearch([hostnames], http\_auth=('elastic', 'elastic'), port=9200) ##### test using one job, once done please remove .query\* s = Search(using=client, index=input\_index).query("match", job="4139835950") search = s.source(["job", "minutes", "nodes", "exechost"]) this will return four value. for that job#. which is also my \_id Then I created dictionary record like this mylist = [{"\_index": "your\_index", "\_id": "4139835950", "\_op\_type": "update", "\_source": {"my\_new\_field": "9.98654"}}] and created list of such entry. once list is 5000 count I used bulk helper to write back to index helpers.bulk(elastic\_output, mylist) ---
**Author:** ![davestewart](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/davestewart/32/97621_2.png) [@davestewart](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/davestewart)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 2:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-practice-for-handling-ids-in-get-and-search-results/290500/3 "2021-11-30T14:51:43Z")
Thanks for the reply @elasticforme. I'm good with the search and update APIs, the thrust of my question was really how folks structure the data returned from an Elastic `_search` or `_get` to be consumed by the front end application. Do they: 1 ) Pass back the whole hit and reference `_id` and `_src` separately in the frontend code, i.e. `model._id` and `model._source.name`: ```auto { "_index" : "contacts", "_type" : "_doc", "_id" : "VBj7bH0Bk8QNffIJSaXC", "_score" : 1.0, "_source" : { "name" : "Some contact", "phone" : "123456789" } } ``` 2 ) Merge the `_id` into `_src` and return that, , referencing it all as one object i.e. `model._id` and `model.name`: ```auto { "_id" : "VBj7bH0Bk8QNffIJSaXC", "name" : "New contact", "phone" : "123456789" } ``` 3 ) Something else, for example passing `_id` as `id` ? ```auto { "id" : "VBj7bH0Bk8QNffIJSaXC", "name" : "New contact", "phone" : "123456789" } ``` As mentioned, I just don't want to start reinventing the wheel or introducing bad practices. Admittedly, this kind of thing is always a balance between back and front end constraints and motivations. ---
**Author:** ![elasticforme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f05b48/32.png) [@elasticforme](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/elasticforme)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 2:56pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-practice-for-handling-ids-in-get-and-search-results/290500/4 "2021-11-30T14:56:31Z")
> [@davestewart](#): > > ```auto > { > "_index" : "contacts", > "_type" : "_doc", > "_id" : "VBj7bH0Bk8QNffIJSaXC", > "_score" : 1.0, > "_source" : { > "name" : "Some contact", > "phone" : "123456789" > } > } > > ``` This is correct method for updating document. ---
**Author:** ![elasticforme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f05b48/32.png) [@elasticforme](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/elasticforme)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 2:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-practice-for-handling-ids-in-get-and-search-results/290500/5 "2021-11-30T14:59:08Z")
I have three index with 100 to 150 Million record in each these are 2018, 2019 and 2020 data and now I needed to add a field in to each record. just finish 2018 index. took me 7 hour for extraction and update of all document in a index. same way that you have explain in your first example. ---
**Author:** ![davestewart](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/davestewart/32/97621_2.png) [@davestewart](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/davestewart)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 4:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-practice-for-handling-ids-in-get-and-search-results/290500/6 "2021-11-30T16:19:52Z")
> [@elasticforme](#): > > This is correct method for updating document. I'm talking about the data passed from Elastic to the front end application (perhaps in a `_search` reequest) not the data passed to Elastic via an `_update` request. I shall update the post to disambiguate. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2021, 4:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-practice-for-handling-ids-in-get-and-search-results/290500/7 "2021-12-28T16:19:55Z")
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