# Performance of Range queries on Keyword fields

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/performance-of-range-queries-on-keyword-fields/357274>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [April 12, 2024, 10:56am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/performance-of-range-queries-on-keyword-fields/357274 "2024-04-12T10:56:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![SayMyNameSB](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/saymynamesb/32/133469_2.png) [@SayMyNameSB](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/SayMyNameSB)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 10:56am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/performance-of-range-queries-on-keyword-fields/357274/1 "2024-04-12T10:56:25Z")

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Hello, how is the performance of Range queries on Keyword (string) fields?

The date fields with values in ISO formats [yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss. SSSXXX] are indexed as `keyword` instead of `date`.  
There is a need to filter the records with date range.

The record count per shard in Prod cluster indexes is a couple of lacs.  
Elasticsearch version: 7.10.2

Is it very inefficient compared to the `date` and `long` fields? Should we re-index the data with date mappings?

Thanks

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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:** [April 12, 2024, 12:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/performance-of-range-queries-on-keyword-fields/357274/2 "2024-04-12T12:02:03Z")

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Welcome!

You can not really use keyword type for date comparison. You'd better to reindex.

While you are at it, please upgrade as your version is too old.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SayMyNameSB](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/saymynamesb/32/133469_2.png) [@SayMyNameSB](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/SayMyNameSB)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2024, 9:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/performance-of-range-queries-on-keyword-fields/357274/4 "2024-04-14T21:00:49Z")

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Thanks.  
Range query works on keyword fields with a query like below

```auto
{
  "query": {
    "range": {
      "fieldName": {
        "gte": "valueA",
        "lte": "valueB"
      }
    }
  }
}

```

Is there any documentation/references related to its performance?

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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:** [April 14, 2024, 10:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/performance-of-range-queries-on-keyword-fields/357274/5 "2024-04-14T22:38:48Z")

</div>

My guess is that it's faster with optimized data structures. Here date data type for dates.