# Unable to add my JSON file to elasticsearch get error "Can't merge a non object mapping"

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-add-my-json-file-to-elasticsearch-get-error-cant-merge-a-non-object-mapping/226562>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** docker\
**Created:** [April 5, 2020, 10:50am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-add-my-json-file-to-elasticsearch-get-error-cant-merge-a-non-object-mapping/226562 "2020-04-05T10:50:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/christian_dahlqvist/32/4617_2.png) [@Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Christian_Dahlqvist)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 1:17pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-add-my-json-file-to-elasticsearch-get-error-cant-merge-a-non-object-mapping/226562/2 "2020-04-05T13:17:08Z")

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> [@zebulyon](#):
>
> "ip.checksum": "0x0000b5f8",  
> "ip.checksum.status": "2",

When you have dots in field names these gets expanded, which means that `ip.checksum` need to hold an object containing the `status` field as well as a string. As every field must have a distinct mapping, this is not allowed and causes an error. You therefore need to change the structure or rename your keys to get away from the dot notation.

See [this thread](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-handle-dot-in-field-names-in-es-7-0/176511/7) for an example.

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