# Elasticsearch 6 painless query exception
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-6-painless-query-exception/135588
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [June 12, 2018, 7:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-6-painless-query-exception/135588 "2018-06-12T19:20:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@pungent](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/pungent)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2018, 7:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-6-painless-query-exception/135588/1 "2018-06-12T19:20:51Z")
I am using Elasticsearch 6.2 which uses painless for the inline scripting. One of the fields in my doc has mapping:
```
"gap_days": {"type": "integer"}
```
And I have a painless script for search and the few lines are:
```
int gap = 10; //initialize to a default value
if (doc.containsKey('gap_days')) {
if (doc['gap_days'].value != null) {
gap = doc['gap_days'].value;
}
}
```
But this keeps throwing an error:
```
script_stack: [
"gap = doc['gap_days'].value; } } ",
" ^---- HERE"
],
caused_by: {
reason: "cannot convert MethodHandle(Longs)long to (Object)int",
type: "wrong_method_type_exception"
},
reason: "runtime error"
```
I tried to look into all unique `doc['gap_days']` values in the index, and you can see all of them are integer in all documents
```
"aggregations": {
"uniq_gaps": {
"doc_count_error_upper_bound": 0,
"sum_other_doc_count": 342,
"buckets": [
{
"key": 0,
"doc_count": 31607
},
{
"key": 365,
"doc_count": 15119
},
{
"key": 5,
"doc_count": 2639
},
{
"key": 21,
"doc_count": 1784
},
{
"key": 14,
"doc_count": 1229
},
{
"key": 3,
"doc_count": 1073
},
{
"key": 7,
"doc_count": 979
},
{
"key": 2,
"doc_count": 728
},
{
"key": 4,
"doc_count": 291
},
{
"key": 10,
"doc_count": 170
}
]
}
}
```
Then why does it throw an exception saying `cannot convert MethodHandle(Longs)long to (Object)int` and my script stops working. Any idea how to fix this problem?
---
### Author:  [@Igor\_Motov](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Igor_Motov)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2018, 8:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-6-painless-query-exception/135588/2 "2018-06-12T20:00:46Z")
There are a few problems here. It should be `long gap` instead of `int gap` and I don't think your check for missing value is not going to work for numbers. The script is also missing return statement.
I just want to mention that using scripts should be the last resort because they are quite slow. In most cases missing values can be handled by for example specifying the [`missing_value`](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/search-aggregations-bucket-terms-aggregation.html#_missing_value_12) parameter on the aggregation or using [exists](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.2/query-dsl-exists-query.html) query, etc...
---
### Author:  [@pungent](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/pungent)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2018, 9:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-6-painless-query-exception/135588/3 "2018-06-12T21:57:54Z")
> [@pungent](#):
>
> And I have a painless script for search and the few lines are:
Thanks, @Igor_Motov for your help.
1. You mentioned `gap_days` should be data type `long` not `integer`, Just wondering why so? In our system, `gap_days` maximum value will never exceed 999, so does it still need to be defined as `long` ? I have the liberty to define it as data type `long` in the mapping and I can make the change. But was curious the reasoning behind that change? Could you please explain.
2. The script code which I posted is just a `few lines of snippets` of my big script, that's why you don't see `return` and hence the existence check is part of script and not using `exists`
3. You also said - `I don't think your check for missing value is not going to work for numbers`, do you mean there is something wrong with this condition? `if (doc['gap_days'].value != null)` ?
I appreciate your time helping me out 🙂
---
### Author:  [@pungent](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/pungent)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2018, 11:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-6-painless-query-exception/135588/4 "2018-06-12T23:28:56Z")
FWIW, I also found an old discussion, [Long field is returned as integer if the value is less in Java API](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/long-field-is-returned-as-integer-if-the-value-is-less-in-java-api/9127/10) where they discussed a `reverse` problem. `long to integer` while in my case it is `integer to long` and I don't use Java API
---
### Author:  [@Igor\_Motov](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Igor_Motov)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2018, 1:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-6-painless-query-exception/135588/5 "2018-06-13T01:34:18Z")
> You mentioned gap\_days should be data type long not integer, Just wondering why so? In our system, gap\_days maximum value will never exceed 999, so does it still need to be defined as long ? I have the liberty to define it as data type long in the mapping and I can make the change. But was curious the reasoning behind that change? Could you please explain.
In the index it is still defined as integer and the index is actually optimized to take advantage of the low cardinality of this field. However, when this field is accessed in the scripts, for simplicity sake all integral data types are represented as longs and all real data types are represented as doubles.
The issue with Java API is a completely different issue since the value in the linked example was extracted from source (json document) and in your example the value is obtained from docvalues.
> You also said - I don't think your check for missing value is not going to work for numbers, do you mean there is something wrong with this condition? if (doc['gap\_days'].value != null) ?
This condition will be always `true`. Try this:
```auto
PUT test
{
"mappings": {
"doc": {
"properties": {
"gap_days": {"type": "integer"}
}
}
}
}
PUT test/doc/1
{
"gap_days": 1
}
PUT test/doc/2
{
}
GET test/doc/_search
{
"script_fields": {
"is_empty": {
"script": {
"source": "doc['gap_days'].isEmpty()"
}
},
"is_not_null": {
"script": {
"source": "doc['gap_days'].value != null"
}
},
"value": {
"script": {
"source": "doc['gap_days'].value"
}
}
}
}
```
---
### Author:  [@pungent](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/pungent)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2018, 11:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-6-painless-query-exception/135588/6 "2018-06-13T23:15:48Z")
Thank you @Igor_Motov . I understood now, so in the script, I should always initialize a numerical variable as `long` not an `integer` even if it is defined as `integer` in the mapping?
---
### Author:  [@Igor\_Motov](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Igor_Motov)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2018, 2:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-6-painless-query-exception/135588/7 "2018-06-15T14:37:13Z")
> I should always initialize a numerical variable as long not an integer even if it is defined as integer in the mapping?
I wouldn't say "always", you can cast it to integer, if you prefer. I am just saying that doc values that you are going to get for integral data types are going to be longs and you need to accommodate for that one way or another.
---
### Author:  [@pungent](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/pungent)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2018, 3:41pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-6-painless-query-exception/135588/8 "2018-06-15T15:41:57Z")
Perfect, well understood now. Thank you so much for your help @Igor_Motov . By any chance do you have an answer for my other question? [Accessing the value of a dynamic key in an object](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/accessing-the-value-of-a-dynamic-key-in-an-object/136012)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2018, 3:41pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-6-painless-query-exception/135588/9 "2018-07-13T15:41:58Z")
This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.