# Is it possible to update an existing field in an index through mapping in Elasticsearch?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-possible-to-update-an-existing-field-in-an-index-through-mapping-in-elasticsearch/64510
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [November 1, 2016, 4:37am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-possible-to-update-an-existing-field-in-an-index-through-mapping-in-elasticsearch/64510 "2016-11-01T04:37:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Kulasangar\_Gowrisang](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Kulasangar_Gowrisang)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2016, 4:37am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-possible-to-update-an-existing-field-in-an-index-through-mapping-in-elasticsearch/64510/1 "2016-11-01T04:37:48Z")
I've already created an index, and it contains data from my `MySQL` database. I've got few fields which are `string` in my table, where I need them as different types (`integer` & `double`) in `Elasticsearch`.
So I'm aware that I could do it through `mapping` as follows:
```
{
"mappings": {
"my_type": {
"properties": {
"userid": {
"type": "text",
"fielddata": true
},
"responsecode": {
"type": "integer"
},
"chargeamount": {
"type": "double"
}
}
}
}
}
```
But I've tried this when I'm creating the index as a new one. What I wanted to know is how can I update an existing field (ie: `chargeamount` in this scenario) using `mapping` as a `PUT`?
Is this possible? Any help could be appreciated.
---
### Author:  [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2016, 4:38am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-possible-to-update-an-existing-field-in-an-index-through-mapping-in-elasticsearch/64510/2 "2016-11-01T04:38:21Z")
You cannot, you need to reindex.
---
### Author:  [@Kulasangar\_Gowrisang](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Kulasangar_Gowrisang)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2016, 4:38am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-possible-to-update-an-existing-field-in-an-index-through-mapping-in-elasticsearch/64510/3 "2016-11-01T04:38:50Z")
@warkolm thanks 🙂
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 10:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-it-possible-to-update-an-existing-field-in-an-index-through-mapping-in-elasticsearch/64510/4 "2017-07-05T22:08:01Z")