# Can I update a field (e.g. timestamp) whenever an update is not a noop?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/can-i-update-a-field-e-g-timestamp-whenever-an-update-is-not-a-noop/161711
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [December 20, 2018, 2:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/can-i-update-a-field-e-g-timestamp-whenever-an-update-is-not-a-noop/161711 "2018-12-20T14:51:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jdmcalee](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jdmcalee)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2018, 2:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/can-i-update-a-field-e-g-timestamp-whenever-an-update-is-not-a-noop/161711/1 "2018-12-20T14:51:26Z")
I have a set of data files that get uploaded by clients periodically. Each file is a complete collection of items, some of which may have changed since the last upload. However, the data does not include any kind of last-update timestamp, so the only way to identify changes is to compare the data for a given item to what was in the previous file. In total, there are hundreds of thousands of items to be processed.
What I was hoping to do is to index this data, using a consistent id for each item, and if the elasticsearch operation is _not_ a noop, to update a timestamp field on the document. I could then query elasticsearch to find all the items that were truly updated (some of the data changed) since yesterday (or whenever).
Is there any way to achieve this?
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2019, 2:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/can-i-update-a-field-e-g-timestamp-whenever-an-update-is-not-a-noop/161711/2 "2019-01-17T14:51:27Z")
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