# \[JAVA API\] Sorting on field return error "active fielddata"
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/java-api-sorting-on-field-return-error-active-fielddata/139170
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [July 9, 2018, 12:33pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/java-api-sorting-on-field-return-error-active-fielddata/139170 "2018-07-09T12:33:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@younesbenallal](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/younesbenallal)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2018, 12:33pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/java-api-sorting-on-field-return-error-active-fielddata/139170/1 "2018-07-09T12:33:53Z")
Hey,
I'm using the Java API to do some search on an Elastic base. I have differents functions of listing, filtering etc,.. (all working). But, when I want to sort by a field, I have this error :
```
`Elasticsearch exception [type=illegal_argument_exception, reason=Fielddata is disabled on text fields by default. Set fielddata=true on [language] in order to load fielddata in memory by uninverting the inverted index. Note that this can however use significant memory. Alternatively use a keyword field instead.]]; nested: ElasticsearchException[Elasticsearch exception [type=illegal_argument_exception, reason=Fielddata is disabled on text fields by default. Set fielddata=true on [language] in order to load fielddata in memory by uninverting the inverted index. Note that this can however use significant memory. Alternatively use a keyword field instead.`
```
This error is caused by this part of the code :
```
public ArrayList listOrdered(String field, int direction) {
SearchRequest searchRequest = new SearchRequest(EnvSkeleton.ELASTIC_INDEX);
searchRequest.types(tClazz.getSimpleName());
SearchSourceBuilder searchSourceBuilder = new SearchSourceBuilder();
searchSourceBuilder.size(5000);
//TODO : correct this line (ask to activate fielddata)
//searchSourceBuilder.sort(field, getOrder(direction));
FieldSortBuilder sort = new FieldSortBuilder(field);
searchSourceBuilder.sort(sort);
searchRequest.source(searchSourceBuilder);
searchSourceBuilder.query(QueryBuilders.matchAllQuery());
searchRequest.source(searchSourceBuilder);
SearchResponse searchResponse = null;
try {
searchResponse = client.search(searchRequest);
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return resultToList(searchResponse.getHits());
}
```
---
### Author:  [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2018, 1:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/java-api-sorting-on-field-return-error-active-fielddata/139170/2 "2018-07-09T13:04:47Z")
You can't sort on language as it's not a keyword data type but a text.
Change your mapping
---
### Author:  [@younesbenallal](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/younesbenallal)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2018, 3:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/java-api-sorting-on-field-return-error-active-fielddata/139170/3 "2018-07-10T15:00:29Z")
For those who like me can't modify the mapping, I just added ".keyword" to my field in order to not use th text fild.
Thanks @dadoonet !
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2018, 3:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/java-api-sorting-on-field-return-error-active-fielddata/139170/4 "2018-08-07T15:00:33Z")
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