# Partial update based of field values?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/partial-update-based-of-field-values/50879>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [May 24, 2016, 7:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/partial-update-based-of-field-values/50879 "2016-05-24T19:38:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![slackday](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/slackday/32/9921_2.png) [@slackday](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/slackday)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 7:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/partial-update-based-of-field-values/50879/1 "2016-05-24T19:38:19Z")

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Hello,

Is it possible to update nested properties on documents based on a query? I can't find any documentation on updates without specifying an ID.

I need to be able to select documents based on other fields and if they match I need to updated with a nested property.

Thanks for any info 🙂

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**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 9:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/partial-update-based-of-field-values/50879/2 "2016-05-25T09:26:32Z")

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There is an update by query coming in 2.3 that might do what you want - [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/docs-update-by-query.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/docs-update-by-query.html)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![slackday](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/slackday/32/9921_2.png) [@slackday](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/slackday)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 2:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/partial-update-based-of-field-values/50879/3 "2016-05-25T14:05:01Z")

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Thanks Warkolm. I'm using Elastic Cloud which runs ES 2.3.

I tried the update\_by\_query approach and submitted a query that selects a nested object but i get this error `[mapper_parsing_exception] Field name [article_id.original_id] cannot contain '.'`

If I run the query in the \_search API it works.

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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 5, 2017, 10:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/partial-update-based-of-field-values/50879/4 "2017-07-05T22:49:02Z")

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