# Mapping for objects with an arbitrary amount of properties

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/mapping-for-objects-with-an-arbitrary-amount-of-properties/14626>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [November 28, 2013, 11:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/mapping-for-objects-with-an-arbitrary-amount-of-properties/14626 "2013-11-28T11:57:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hereandnow](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/hereandnow/32/1945_2.png) [@hereandnow](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/hereandnow)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 11:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/mapping-for-objects-with-an-arbitrary-amount-of-properties/14626/1 "2013-11-28T11:57:01Z")

</div>

i have a given document:

{  
"foo": {}  
}

where `foo` can have an arbitrary amount of properties. lets assume i will  
import millions of documents into my index, in which each of `foo`'s  
properties do have other values.

that means my mapping which will be built dynamically will grow enormous.  
is there any kind of way where i can tell elasticsearch something like

_take everything you have in `foo` and just accept it as it is (or  
stringify `foo`) without having a resulting million-lines-mapping???_

or do i have to care by myself, before indexing documents?

if so, there a 2 solutions i think

1. JSON-Stringify

JSON.stringify(obj.foo)

1. map every property in `foo` into key/value pairs, and create an array of  
objects:

// object  
{  
"foo": [  
{"key": "bar1", "value": "bar1's value"},  
{"key": "bar2", "value": "bar2's value"}  
]  
}

// resulting mapping  
{  
"type": {  
"properties": {  
"foo": {  
"properties": {  
"key": {  
"type": "string"  
},  
"value": {  
"type": "string"  
}  
}  
}  
}  
}  
}

would you prefer then solution 1 or 2, and why?

appreciate your help!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 9:31pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/mapping-for-objects-with-an-arbitrary-amount-of-properties/14626/2 "2013-11-28T21:31:15Z")

</div>

Not sure I understood completely the use case. Having real data could help.

That said, if you do solution 2 I think you will need to use nested documents to index sub documents in foo.  
Nested docs are actual Lucene docs. So indexing  
{  
"foo": [  
{"key": "bar1", "value": "bar1's value"},  
{"key": "bar2", "value": "bar2's value"}  
]  
}

will result in 3 docs (the main one and one for each key/value pair).

Nested documents are fine but complicate then a little queries.

For example 1, could you illustrate how your document will look like?

--  
David Pilato | Technical Advocate | [Elasticsearch.com](http://Elasticsearch.com)  
@dadoonet | @elasticsearchfr

Le 28 novembre 2013 at 12:57:04, hereandnow ([hereandnow78@googlemail.com](mailto:hereandnow78@googlemail.com)) a écrit:

i have a given document:

{  
"foo": {}  
}

where `foo` can have an arbitrary amount of properties. lets assume i will import millions of documents into my index, in which each of `foo`'s properties do have other values.

that means my mapping which will be built dynamically will grow enormous. is there any kind of way where i can tell elasticsearch something like

take everything you have in `foo` and just accept it as it is (or stringify `foo`) without having a resulting million-lines-mapping???

or do i have to care by myself, before indexing documents?

if so, there a 2 solutions i think

1. JSON-Stringify

JSON.stringify(obj.foo)

1. map every property in `foo` into key/value pairs, and create an array of objects:

// object  
{  
"foo": [  
{"key": "bar1", "value": "bar1's value"},  
{"key": "bar2", "value": "bar2's value"}  
]  
}

// resulting mapping  
{  
"type": {  
"properties": {  
"foo": {  
"properties": {  
"key": {  
"type": "string"  
},  
"value": {  
"type": "string"  
}  
}  
}  
}  
}  
}

would you prefer then solution 1 or 2, and why?

## appreciate your help!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hereandnow](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/hereandnow/32/1945_2.png) [@hereandnow](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/hereandnow)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 9:28am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/mapping-for-objects-with-an-arbitrary-amount-of-properties/14626/3 "2013-11-29T09:28:08Z")

</div>

thanks for your answer. i found a solution for this. i dont need to search  
on 'foo' so i can just disable the field, to prevent bloating of my mapping

"foo": {  
"type": "object",  
"enabled": false  
}

Am Donnerstag, 28. November 2013 12:57:01 UTC+1 schrieb hereandnow:

> i have a given document:
> 
> {  
> "foo": {}  
> }
> 
> where `foo` can have an arbitrary amount of properties. lets assume i will  
> import millions of documents into my index, in which each of `foo`'s  
> properties do have other values.
> 
> that means my mapping which will be built dynamically will grow enormous.  
> is there any kind of way where i can tell elasticsearch something like
> 
> _take everything you have in `foo` and just accept it as it is (or  
> stringify `foo`) without having a resulting million-lines-mapping???_
> 
> or do i have to care by myself, before indexing documents?
> 
> if so, there a 2 solutions i think
> 
> 1. JSON-Stringify
> 
> JSON.stringify(obj.foo)
> 
> 1. map every property in `foo` into key/value pairs, and create an array  
> of objects:
> 
> // object  
> {  
> "foo": [  
> {"key": "bar1", "value": "bar1's value"},  
> {"key": "bar2", "value": "bar2's value"}  
> ]  
> }
> 
> // resulting mapping  
> {  
> "type": {  
> "properties": {  
> "foo": {  
> "properties": {  
> "key": {  
> "type": "string"  
> },  
> "value": {  
> "type": "string"  
> }  
> }  
> }  
> }  
> }  
> }
> 
> would you prefer then solution 1 or 2, and why?
> 
> appreciate your help!

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---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hereandnow](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/hereandnow/32/1945_2.png) [@hereandnow](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/hereandnow)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 9:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/mapping-for-objects-with-an-arbitrary-amount-of-properties/14626/4 "2013-11-29T09:29:01Z")

</div>

thanks for your answer. i found a solution for this. i dont need to search  
on 'foo' so i can just disable the field, to prevent bloating of my mapping

"foo": {  
"type": "object",  
"enabled": false  
}

--  
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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, 2:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/mapping-for-objects-with-an-arbitrary-amount-of-properties/14626/5 "2017-07-06T02:04:12Z")

</div>