# Delete or update empty value, which is more efficient in ES?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-or-update-empty-value-which-is-more-efficient-in-es/40595
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [February 1, 2016, 3:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-or-update-empty-value-which-is-more-efficient-in-es/40595 "2016-02-01T03:34:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Gary\_Wu](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Gary_Wu)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2016, 3:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-or-update-empty-value-which-is-more-efficient-in-es/40595/1 "2016-02-01T03:34:33Z")
Hi
I use ES in a cluster, and the system is very busy. if the ES cluster receives many delete messages in a short time, could these messages reduce the cluster performance obviously?
If I don't delete the index at once, but do it later. is it better? For example, if the system is busy, only update all key-values to empty value { } . When the cluster is idle, delete all related index in a bulk message.
Thanks
---
### Author:  [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2016, 6:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-or-update-empty-value-which-is-more-efficient-in-es/40595/2 "2016-02-01T06:34:39Z")
Update operations are equivalent to deleting the old document and adding the updated document as a new document. Hence, update + delete is more expensive than just a delete.
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Wu](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Gary_Wu)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2016, 6:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-or-update-empty-value-which-is-more-efficient-in-es/40595/3 "2016-02-01T06:54:08Z")
Hi @Magnus,
Thank you for your reply. I still have a confusion. If I update only one key-value in the index, does the whole document be updated ?
If the answer is no, I have another thought. I can add a new key-value flag (default "1" ) in every index, if the index is deleted, I just update the key-value flag to "0" because the system is busy. When the cluster is idle, I could delete all unused index which the flag is "0" in batch. Is it a reasonable idea?
Thanks
---
### Author:  [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2016, 7:12am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-or-update-empty-value-which-is-more-efficient-in-es/40595/4 "2016-02-01T07:12:18Z")
> Thank you for your reply. I still have a confusion. If I update only one key-value in the index, does the whole document be updated ?
Yes.
> **[Updating Documents | Elasticsearch Guide \[2.1\] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/2.1/_updating_documents.html)**
> If the answer is no, I have another thought. I can add a new key-value flag (default "1" ) in every index, if the index is deleted, I just update the key-value flag to "0" because the system is busy. When the cluster is idle, I could delete all unused index which the flag is "0" in batch. Is it a reasonable idea?
You mean you'd add a separate document that indicates whether the index is going to be deleted? How are you going to use that in your queries? Anyway, deleting the whole index is a cheap operation.
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Wu](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Gary_Wu)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2016, 8:22am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-or-update-empty-value-which-is-more-efficient-in-es/40595/5 "2016-02-01T08:22:39Z")
Thanks a lot. From reference, I see every update will cause a old document is deleted(not at once, but do it later) and a new document is created. And the index is pointed to the new document.
There is a mistake in my last answer. I means that there is an additional field in every document. for example;
PUT /website/blog/123
{
```
"title": "My first blog entry",
"text": "I am starting to get the hang of this...",
"date": "2014/01/02"，
"deleted_flag" : true
```
}
After delete the document, the "deleted\_flag" will be updated to false.
when query data every times, a extra condition should be added as below.
GET /website/blog/123
{
* * *
```
"query": {
"filter":{
"query" : {"match": xxxx } //some queries conditions
"filter": { "term": { "deleted_flag": false}}, //extra judgement condition
}
}
```
}
I want to use esRdd of spark to do some operation in ES, but it seems that esRdd doesn't support delete operation. I am trying to find other optional plan for the same result in ES.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 11:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-or-update-empty-value-which-is-more-efficient-in-es/40595/6 "2017-07-05T23:19:59Z")