# Change field type of a non indexed field?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/change-field-type-of-a-non-indexed-field/117844>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [January 31, 2018, 3:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/change-field-type-of-a-non-indexed-field/117844 "2018-01-31T15:20:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Olivier-L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7feea3/32.png) [@Olivier-L](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Olivier-L)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2018, 3:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/change-field-type-of-a-non-indexed-field/117844/1 "2018-01-31T15:20:13Z")

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Hello,

ATM in our existing index we have a "Document\_FileName" field with following mapping:

```
"Document_FileName": {
    "type": "string",
    "index": "no",
	"doc_values": false
}

```

We would like to change its mapping to:

```
"Document_FileName": {
	"properties": {
		"en": {
			"type": "string",
			"index": "no",
			"doc_values": false
		},
		"fr": {
			"type": "string",
			"index": "no",
			"doc_values": false
		},
		"de": {
			"type": "string",
			"index": "no",
			"doc_values": false
		}
	}
}

```

From our understanding, when using such mapping, none of the fields are indexed but are only present in the "\_source" field (the client code will accommodate the different "structures" of this field in the "\_source")

Anyway, we would like to have confirmation that is possible and harmless.

Thanks in advance

Olivier.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [February 2, 2018, 12:42am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/change-field-type-of-a-non-indexed-field/117844/2 "2018-02-02T00:42:28Z")

</div>

> [@Olivier-L](#):
>
> From our understanding, when using such mapping, none of the fields are indexed but are only present in the "\_source" field

Yep.

> [@Olivier-L](#):
>
> Anyway, we would like to have confirmation that is possible and harmless.

It's possible, not sure how you would rate what harmless is though.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2018, 12:42am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/change-field-type-of-a-non-indexed-field/117844/3 "2018-03-02T00:42:57Z")

</div>

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