# Field is of type string when doing search when mapping specifies double
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/field-is-of-type-string-when-doing-search-when-mapping-specifies-double/76110
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [February 22, 2017, 9:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/field-is-of-type-string-when-doing-search-when-mapping-specifies-double/76110 "2017-02-22T21:19:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@spynxo](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spynxo)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2017, 9:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/field-is-of-type-string-when-doing-search-when-mapping-specifies-double/76110/1 "2017-02-22T21:19:42Z")
Hi All,
I have a question about field types in ES 2.3. I want to index a document with a field of type string and want ES to store it as a double. I created a 'myindex' index with the following mapping:
```auto
"mappings": {
"mytype": {
"properties": {
"myfield": {
"type": "double"
}
}
}
}
```
I then indexed the following document:
```auto
curl -XPUT 'localhost:9200/myindex/mytype/mydoc1' -d '{
"myfield": "0509195614.3333333331234"
}'
```
The problem is that when I query the index, the field shows up as a string:
```auto
curl -XGET 'localhost:9200/myindex/_search'
{
"_index": "myindex",
"_type": "mytype",
"_id": "mydoc1",
"_score": 1,
"_source": {
"myfield": "0509195614.3333333331234"
}
}
```
Am I doing something wrong? Is this expected?
Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@jkuang](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jkuang)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2017, 11:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/field-is-of-type-string-when-doing-search-when-mapping-specifies-double/76110/2 "2017-02-22T23:19:55Z")
This is expected. You can't store a value as one type, then index it as another.
---
### Author:  [@spynxo](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spynxo)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2017, 11:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/field-is-of-type-string-when-doing-search-when-mapping-specifies-double/76110/3 "2017-02-22T23:58:56Z")
The weird thing is that when I query the document and ask for that particular field it returns it as a number. If I just query for the document without specifying the field it returns it as a string. I'm confused as to what's going on.
```auto
curl -XGET 'localhost:9200/myindex/mytype/mydoc1?fields=myfield'
{
"_index": "myindex",
"_type": "mytype",
"_id": "mydoc1",
"_version": 1,
"found": true,
"fields": {
"myfield": [
509195614.3333333
]
}
}
```
---
### Author:  [@jkuang](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jkuang)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2017, 1:06am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/field-is-of-type-string-when-doing-search-when-mapping-specifies-double/76110/4 "2017-02-23T01:06:07Z")
This is a bit confusing. It is due to ES being proactive and knows that you really meant double and not string. ES converts it internally to a float or integer even if you use "123" in the \_source, but it can have some strange stuff happen in other situations.
---
### Author:  [@spynxo](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spynxo)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2017, 6:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/field-is-of-type-string-when-doing-search-when-mapping-specifies-double/76110/5 "2017-02-23T18:42:09Z")
In this case I'm defining in the mapping that the "myfield" field should be a double. I'm wondering if operations like sort or range queries will be done over numbers instead of strings.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2017, 6:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/field-is-of-type-string-when-doing-search-when-mapping-specifies-double/76110/6 "2017-03-23T18:42:38Z")
This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.