# Help deleting by field name **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [May 5, 2014, 10:25pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/help-deleting-by-field-name/17357 "2014-05-05T22:25:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chris\_Laplante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Chris\_Laplante](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Chris_Laplante)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 10:25pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/help-deleting-by-field-name/17357/1 "2014-05-05T22:25:57Z")
I have a number of fields (15K) that were created inadvertently. How would I delete them all from all indexes based on a pattern of the field name. Eg all the fields I want to delete are in indexes named with the standard logstash naming and are "calculus\_data.calculus\_\*" Thanks, -Chris -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0ff099ca-5db2-4f34-a6fb-e418d8d38dac%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0ff099ca-5db2-4f34-a6fb-e418d8d38dac%40googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). ---
**Author:** ![Ivan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/df788c/32.png) [@Ivan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ivan)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 9:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/help-deleting-by-field-name/17357/2 "2014-05-07T21:37:56Z")
Are you looking to delete the documents or just the field? If you are trying to delete the entire document that contains the field, you could use a delete by query where the query contains on exists filter: > **[Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale](https://www.elastic.co)** > > Power insights and outcomes with the Elasticsearch Platform and AI. See into your data and find answers that matter with enterprise solutions designed to help you build, observe, and protect. Try Elasticsearch free today. > **[Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale](https://www.elastic.co)** > > Power insights and outcomes with the Elasticsearch Platform and AI. See into your data and find answers that matter with enterprise solutions designed to help you build, observe, and protect. Try Elasticsearch free today. However, you will not be able to use wildcards in the exists filter, so you will need to explicitly state each filter. That's the best I can think of. 🙂 Cheers, Ivan On Mon, May 5, 2014 at 3:25 PM, Chris Laplante [chrisla23@gmail.com](mailto:chrisla23@gmail.com) wrote: > I have a number of fields (15K) that were created inadvertently. > > How would I delete them all from all indexes based on a pattern of the > field name. > > Eg all the fields I want to delete are in indexes named with the standard > logstash naming and are > > "calculus\_data.calculus\_\*" > > Thanks, > > -Chris > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "elasticsearch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > To view this discussion on the web visit > [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0ff099ca-5db2-4f34-a6fb-e418d8d38dac%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0ff099ca-5db2-4f34-a6fb-e418d8d38dac%40googlegroups.com)[https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0ff099ca-5db2-4f34-a6fb-e418d8d38dac%40googlegroups.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0ff099ca-5db2-4f34-a6fb-e418d8d38dac%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer) > . > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CALY%3DcQDRZczMoRahZfOvAhezU66zXT9ijq63xfgWj9zcnDWCeg%40mail.gmail.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CALY%3DcQDRZczMoRahZfOvAhezU66zXT9ijq63xfgWj9zcnDWCeg%40mail.gmail.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). ---
**Author:** ![Chris\_Laplante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Chris\_Laplante](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Chris_Laplante)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 10:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/help-deleting-by-field-name/17357/3 "2014-05-07T22:45:18Z")
Trying to just delete the field. The main real world problem I'm facing is that if the fields picker is expanded in Kibana and there are 15K of them it bogs down the browser. 🙂 Could be a area of improvement there for Kibana to impose a limit. Thanks, -Chris On Wed, May 7, 2014 at 2:37 PM, Ivan Brusic [ivan@brusic.com](mailto:ivan@brusic.com) wrote: > Are you looking to delete the documents or just the field? If you are > trying to delete the entire document that contains the field, you could use > a delete by query where the query contains on exists filter: > > [Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale | Elastic](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/docs-delete-by-query.html) > > [Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale | Elastic](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-exists-filter.html) > > However, you will not be able to use wildcards in the exists filter, so > you will need to explicitly state each filter. That's the best I can think > of. 🙂 > > Cheers, > > Ivan > > On Mon, May 5, 2014 at 3:25 PM, Chris Laplante [chrisla23@gmail.com](mailto:chrisla23@gmail.com)wrote: > > > I have a number of fields (15K) that were created inadvertently. > > > > How would I delete them all from all indexes based on a pattern of the > > field name. > > > > Eg all the fields I want to delete are in indexes named with the standard > > logstash naming and are > > > > "calculus\_data.calculus\_\*" > > > > Thanks, > > > > -Chris > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "elasticsearch" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > > email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > > > > To view this discussion on the web visit > > [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0ff099ca-5db2-4f34-a6fb-e418d8d38dac%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0ff099ca-5db2-4f34-a6fb-e418d8d38dac%40googlegroups.com)[https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0ff099ca-5db2-4f34-a6fb-e418d8d38dac%40googlegroups.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0ff099ca-5db2-4f34-a6fb-e418d8d38dac%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer) > > . > > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit > [https://groups.google.com/d/topic/elasticsearch/C6rr8dJf\_ZM/unsubscribe](https://groups.google.com/d/topic/elasticsearch/C6rr8dJf_ZM/unsubscribe). > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > To view this discussion on the web visit > [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CALY%3DcQDRZczMoRahZfOvAhezU66zXT9ijq63xfgWj9zcnDWCeg%40mail.gmail.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CALY%3DcQDRZczMoRahZfOvAhezU66zXT9ijq63xfgWj9zcnDWCeg%40mail.gmail.com)[https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CALY%3DcQDRZczMoRahZfOvAhezU66zXT9ijq63xfgWj9zcnDWCeg%40mail.gmail.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CALY%3DcQDRZczMoRahZfOvAhezU66zXT9ijq63xfgWj9zcnDWCeg%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer) > . > > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CAPWb6tqpLHk46hVeJfVyD9rZHPJP%2BmqPv6dLg8ytHYoeMVr3cA%40mail.gmail.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CAPWb6tqpLHk46hVeJfVyD9rZHPJP%2BmqPv6dLg8ytHYoeMVr3cA%40mail.gmail.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). ---
**Author:** ![Ivan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/df788c/32.png) [@Ivan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ivan)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 4:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/help-deleting-by-field-name/17357/4 "2014-05-08T16:23:53Z")
Unfortunately, Elasticsearch does not support update by query, so you cannot programatically delete a field. Perhaps there is something that can be done on the Kibana side. -- Ivan On Wed, May 7, 2014 at 3:45 PM, Chris Laplante [chrisla23@gmail.com](mailto:chrisla23@gmail.com) wrote: > Trying to just delete the field. The main real world problem I'm facing is > that if the fields picker is expanded in Kibana and there are 15K of them > it bogs down the browser. 🙂 Could be a area of improvement there for > Kibana to impose a limit. > > Thanks, > > -Chris > > On Wed, May 7, 2014 at 2:37 PM, Ivan Brusic [ivan@brusic.com](mailto:ivan@brusic.com) wrote: > > > Are you looking to delete the documents or just the field? If you are > > trying to delete the entire document that contains the field, you could use > > a delete by query where the query contains on exists filter: > > > > [Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale | Elastic](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/docs-delete-by-query.html) > > > > [Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale | Elastic](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-exists-filter.html) > > > > However, you will not be able to use wildcards in the exists filter, so > > you will need to explicitly state each filter. That's the best I can think > > of. 🙂 > > > > Cheers, > > > > Ivan > > > > On Mon, May 5, 2014 at 3:25 PM, Chris Laplante [chrisla23@gmail.com](mailto:chrisla23@gmail.com)wrote: > > > > > I have a number of fields (15K) that were created inadvertently. > > > > > > How would I delete them all from all indexes based on a pattern of the > > > field name. > > > > > > Eg all the fields I want to delete are in indexes named with the > > > standard logstash naming and are > > > > > > "calculus\_data.calculus\_\*" > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > > > -Chris > > > > > > -- > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > > > Groups "elasticsearch" group. > > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send > > > an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > > > > > > To view this discussion on the web visit > > > [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0ff099ca-5db2-4f34-a6fb-e418d8d38dac%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0ff099ca-5db2-4f34-a6fb-e418d8d38dac%40googlegroups.com)[https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0ff099ca-5db2-4f34-a6fb-e418d8d38dac%40googlegroups.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0ff099ca-5db2-4f34-a6fb-e418d8d38dac%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer) > > > . > > > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > > Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. > > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit > > [https://groups.google.com/d/topic/elasticsearch/C6rr8dJf\_ZM/unsubscribe](https://groups.google.com/d/topic/elasticsearch/C6rr8dJf_ZM/unsubscribe). > > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > > [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > > To view this discussion on the web visit > > [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CALY%3DcQDRZczMoRahZfOvAhezU66zXT9ijq63xfgWj9zcnDWCeg%40mail.gmail.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CALY%3DcQDRZczMoRahZfOvAhezU66zXT9ijq63xfgWj9zcnDWCeg%40mail.gmail.com)[https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CALY%3DcQDRZczMoRahZfOvAhezU66zXT9ijq63xfgWj9zcnDWCeg%40mail.gmail.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CALY%3DcQDRZczMoRahZfOvAhezU66zXT9ijq63xfgWj9zcnDWCeg%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer) > > . > > > > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "elasticsearch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > To view this discussion on the web visit > [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CAPWb6tqpLHk46hVeJfVyD9rZHPJP%2BmqPv6dLg8ytHYoeMVr3cA%40mail.gmail.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CAPWb6tqpLHk46hVeJfVyD9rZHPJP%2BmqPv6dLg8ytHYoeMVr3cA%40mail.gmail.com)[https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CAPWb6tqpLHk46hVeJfVyD9rZHPJP%2BmqPv6dLg8ytHYoeMVr3cA%40mail.gmail.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CAPWb6tqpLHk46hVeJfVyD9rZHPJP%2BmqPv6dLg8ytHYoeMVr3cA%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer) > . > > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CALY%3DcQC1bnH2%3D7qMKz6NAcAuC1AVwVe5gN9OmaytyLJ42-O8vQ%40mail.gmail.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CALY%3DcQC1bnH2%3D7qMKz6NAcAuC1AVwVe5gN9OmaytyLJ42-O8vQ%40mail.gmail.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 1:30am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/help-deleting-by-field-name/17357/5 "2017-07-06T01:30:46Z")