# Differences between an index and an alias which points to a single index
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/differences-between-an-index-and-an-alias-which-points-to-a-single-index/15980
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [February 23, 2014, 11:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/differences-between-an-index-and-an-alias-which-points-to-a-single-index/15980 "2014-02-23T23:03:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Rafael\_Almeida](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Rafael_Almeida)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2014, 11:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/differences-between-an-index-and-an-alias-which-points-to-a-single-index/15980/1 "2014-02-23T23:03:08Z")
Hello,
Say I have an index called duckling and an alias called duck which points
to duckling and no other index. Except for creating an alias pointing to
duck, all the other operations seem to route directly to duckling. Is that
true? is there something besides creating an alias that I can do with an
index, but not with its alias?
[]'s
Rafael
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### Author:  [@javanna](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/javanna)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2014, 7:40am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/differences-between-an-index-and-an-alias-which-points-to-a-single-index/15980/2 "2014-02-24T07:40:40Z")
No limitations, as long as the alias points to a single index.
If it pointed to multiple indices then you couldn't execute single index
operations, like index etc. as it's not possible to identify which single
index the operation is supposed to execute on.
On Monday, February 24, 2014 12:03:08 AM UTC+1, Rafael Almeida wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Say I have an index called duckling and an alias called duck which points
> to duckling and no other index. Except for creating an alias pointing to
> duck, all the other operations seem to route directly to duckling. Is that
> true? is there something besides creating an alias that I can do with an
> index, but not with its alias?
>
> 's
> Rafael
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 1:47am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/differences-between-an-index-and-an-alias-which-points-to-a-single-index/15980/3 "2017-07-06T01:47:56Z")