# Partial update / Python

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/partial-update-python/90291>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [June 21, 2017, 12:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/partial-update-python/90291 "2017-06-21T12:47:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Achi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba8739/32.png) [@Achi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Achi)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2017, 12:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/partial-update-python/90291/1 "2017-06-21T12:47:34Z")

</div>

Hello !

My database contains 500 000 documents in the same index and I need to update some fields of every document every week. I use scrapy to get the data to update for each document.

Instead of updating each document one by one, to increase efficiency, I would like to build a request which updates the first 2000 documents, then the 2000 documents after...

I do the same to create the document for the first time, using helpers.bulk(es, self.actions), with self.actions containing different queries :

```
self.actions=[
    '_index': 'myindex',
    '_type': 'mytype',
    '_id': idItem,
    '_source': { 
       'title': 'title1',
       'views' : 100,
       'likes' : 200,
     },
    '_index': 'myindex',
    '_type': 'mytype',
    '_id': idItem2,
    '_source': { 
       'title': 'title2',
       'views' : 150,
       'likes' : 250,
     },
     ....
     ]

```

I've read a lot of topics and similar questions but I can't find the answer : if I use 'op\_type' : 'update' it doesn't keep the fields that I don't want to update... Furthermore if I use a script using the update API I can't update 2000 documents at the same time...

Do you have a solution (in Python) ?

Thanks a lot !

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood/32/10538_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2017, 1:44pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/partial-update-python/90291/2 "2017-06-21T13:44:40Z")

</div>

> [@Achi](#):
>
> if I use 'op\_type' : 'update' it doesn't keep the fields that I don't want to update...

The content to be merged as part of the update needs to be in an object called `doc` not `_source`. It errors (at least here in 6.0 alpha2) if you pass \_source as part of an optype:\_update. This works OK:

```
from elasticsearch import helpers
from elasticsearch import Elasticsearch

indexName = "test"
docType = "doc"
es = Elasticsearch()
es.indices.delete(index=indexName, ignore=[400, 404])
indexSettings = {
	"settings": {
		"number_of_shards": 1,
		"number_of_replicas": 0
	},
	"mappings": {
		docType: {
			"properties": {
				"name": {
					"type": "keyword"
				},
				"count": {
					"type": "integer"
				}
			}
		}
	}
}
es.indices.create(index=indexName, body=indexSettings)
actions = []

rowNum = 0
while rowNum <100:
		rowNum +=1
		action = {
			"_index": indexName,
			'_op_type': 'index',
			"_type": docType,
			"_id": rowNum,
			"_source": {
				"name":"mark",
				"count":1
			}
		}
		actions.append(action)
helpers.bulk(es, actions)

# Now do updates to 20 docs
rowNum = 0
actions=[]
while rowNum <20:
		rowNum +=1
		action = {
			"_index": indexName,
			'_op_type': 'update',
			"_type": docType,
			"_id": rowNum,
			"doc": {
				"count":2
			}
		}
		actions.append(action)
helpers.bulk(es, actions)

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Achi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba8739/32.png) [@Achi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Achi)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 9:16am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/partial-update-python/90291/3 "2017-06-26T09:16:56Z")

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Thanks a lot, it works now!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 9:17am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/partial-update-python/90291/4 "2017-07-24T09:17:03Z")

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