# Remove Fields - all or if contained specific string
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/remove-fields-all-or-if-contained-specific-string/187285
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [June 25, 2019, 9:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/remove-fields-all-or-if-contained-specific-string/187285 "2019-06-25T09:26:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Datakids](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Datakids)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2019, 9:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/remove-fields-all-or-if-contained-specific-string/187285/1 "2019-06-25T09:26:16Z")
Hi all,
I have a question regarding removing an existing field if contained a specific string.
What I did:
I update documents by this Post:
```
POST /myindex/_update_by_query
{
"script": {
"source": "ctx._source.tags= 'Test'",
"lang": "painless"
},
"query" : {
"constant_score" : {
"filter" : {
"bool" : {
"must" : [
{ "term" : {"Custo" : "80010"}},
{ "term" : {"AreaNr" : "962497"}}
]
}
}
}
}
}
```
And if whatsoever happened I need to remove this entries afterwards by trying this:
```
POST /myindex/_update_by_query?conflicts=proceed
{
"script" : "ctx._source.tags.remove = 'Test'",
"query" : {
"exists": { "field": "tags" }
}
}
```
Or this:
```
POST /myindex/_update_by_query?conflicts=proceed
{
"script" : {
"source": "if (ctx._source.tags.contains('Test')) { ctx._source.tags.remove(ctx._source.tags.indexOf('Test')) }",
"lang": "painless"
}
}
```
But neither of the remove Posts works as expected.
```
{
"error": {
"root_cause": [
{
"type": "script_exception",
"reason": "runtime error",
"script_stack": [
"ctx._source.tags.remove = 'Test'",
" ^---- HERE"
],
"script": "ctx._source.tags.remove = 'Test'",
"lang": "painless"
}
],
"type": "script_exception",
"reason": "runtime error",
"script_stack": [
"ctx._source.tags.remove = 'Test'",
" ^---- HERE"
],
"script": "ctx._source.tags.remove = 'Test'",
"lang": "painless",
"caused_by": {
"type": "illegal_argument_exception",
"reason": "dynamic setter [java.lang.String, remove] not found"
}
},
"status": 400
}
```
> And what about:
>
> `"script":{"inline":"ctx._source.tags.removeAll`
>
> How does this works ?
Hope you can help
Thanks and regards
---
### Author:  [@Datakids](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Datakids)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2019, 10:35am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/remove-fields-all-or-if-contained-specific-string/187285/2 "2019-06-25T10:35:54Z")
...then I found and try this:
```
POST /myindex/_update_by_query
{
"script": { "source": "ctx._source.tags.removeAll(Collections.singleton(params.tag))", "lang": "painless", "params" : { "tag" : "Test" } },
"query" : { "term" : { "field" : "tags" }
}
}
```
and it looks like to work, but:
```
{
"took" : 0,
"timed_out" : false,
"total" : 0,
"updated" : 0,
"deleted" : 0,
"batches" : 0,
"version_conflicts" : 0,
"noops" : 0,
"retries" : {
"bulk" : 0,
"search" : 0
},
"throttled_millis" : 0,
"requests_per_second" : -1.0,
"throttled_until_millis" : 0,
"failures" : []
}
```
hmm, why nothing happens...
still need your advice...
thanks
---
### Author:  [@Datakids](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Datakids)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2019, 8:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/remove-fields-all-or-if-contained-specific-string/187285/3 "2019-06-28T08:07:06Z")
got it at first step, now need to try to work with combinations of must and should fields..:
```
POST /myindex/_doc/_delete_by_query?conflicts=proceed
{
"query": {
"match": {
"tags.keyword": "Test"
}
}
}
```
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 26, 2019, 8:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/remove-fields-all-or-if-contained-specific-string/187285/4 "2019-07-26T08:07:09Z")
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