# Does \_id need to be a string?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does--id-need-to-be-a-string/56774>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [July 29, 2016, 8:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does--id-need-to-be-a-string/56774 "2016-07-29T20:52:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Steve\_Suh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/steve_suh/32/10638_2.png) [@Steve\_Suh](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Steve_Suh)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 8:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does--id-need-to-be-a-string/56774/1 "2016-07-29T20:52:25Z")

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Can \_id be a number? It would help with some of the Kibana queries if it could be a number.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![polyfractal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/polyfractal/32/48162_2.png) [@polyfractal](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/polyfractal)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 9:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does--id-need-to-be-a-string/56774/2 "2016-07-29T21:07:47Z")

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It can, although internally it's basically coerced into a string (`"5"`) 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Steve\_Suh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/steve_suh/32/10638_2.png) [@Steve\_Suh](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Steve_Suh)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does--id-need-to-be-a-string/56774/3 "2016-07-29T21:09:36Z")

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How do you make \_id a number? 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![polyfractal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/polyfractal/32/48162_2.png) [@polyfractal](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/polyfractal)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 9:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does--id-need-to-be-a-string/56774/4 "2016-07-29T21:10:16Z")

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```auto
PUT /my_index/my_type/5
{
  "foo": "bar"
}

```

Just use a number when creating the document

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Steve\_Suh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/steve_suh/32/10638_2.png) [@Steve\_Suh](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Steve_Suh)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 9:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does--id-need-to-be-a-string/56774/5 "2016-07-29T21:12:36Z")

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Ah I think I figured out the issue. It's the Elasticsearch Ruby gem.

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<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:** [July 5, 2017, 10:31pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does--id-need-to-be-a-string/56774/6 "2017-07-05T22:31:37Z")

</div>