# Indexing the \_id field

**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indexing-the--id-field/5742
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [November 1, 2011, 10:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indexing-the--id-field/5742 "2011-11-01T22:55:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Tim\_Pease](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/tim_pease/32/3084_2.png) [@Tim\_Pease](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Tim_Pease)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2011, 10:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indexing-the--id-field/5742/1 "2011-11-01T22:55:51Z")

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I would like to index the \_id field for one of my document types in  
the index. Reading through the elasticsearch documentation (http://  
[www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/mapping/id-field.html](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/mapping/id-field.html)) it was  
recommended to _not_ do this. Could someone please explain any of the  
ramifications if I do enable indexing of the \_id field? It would be  
greatly appreciated!

Blessings,  
TwP

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### Author: ![kimchy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/kimchy/32/44952_2.png) [@kimchy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kimchy)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2011, 11:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indexing-the--id-field/5742/2 "2011-11-01T23:02:07Z")

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It just means it will add the overhead of indexing an additional fields.  
its not that its not recommended, but, usually, you can do without it (i.e.  
using things like ids filter and hte like).

On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 12:55 AM, Tim Pease [tim.pease@gmail.com](mailto:tim.pease@gmail.com) wrote:

> I would like to index the \_id field for one of my document types in  
> the index. Reading through the elasticsearch documentation (http://  
> [Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale | Elastic](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/mapping/id-field.html)) it was  
> recommended to _not_ do this. Could someone please explain any of the  
> ramifications if I do enable indexing of the \_id field? It would be  
> greatly appreciated!
> 
> Blessings,  
> TwP

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### 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, 3:50am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indexing-the--id-field/5742/3 "2017-07-06T03:50:10Z")

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