# Unanalyzed string vs long on es 5.0 **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [November 9, 2016, 6:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unanalyzed-string-vs-long-on-es-5-0/65544 "2016-11-09T18:51:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ddorian43](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ddorian43/32/36093_2.png) [@ddorian43](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ddorian43)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 6:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unanalyzed-string-vs-long-on-es-5-0/65544/1 "2016-11-09T18:51:14Z")
All my rows in my table have a unique integer + unique slug (unchangable). Is it a lot better to index a numeric field compared to string (based on changes on es 5)? String is more readable when debugging, but if it's a big difference in size/ then I'll go for integers. I will only index, not \_store / \_source. Thank You! ---
**Author:** ![ddorian43](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ddorian43/32/36093_2.png) [@ddorian43](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ddorian43)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unanalyzed-string-vs-long-on-es-5-0/65544/2 "2016-11-11T15:52:19Z")
bump (after 2 days is enough I think) ---
**Author:** ![nik9000](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/nik9000/32/44947_2.png) [@nik9000](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nik9000)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2016, 4:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unanalyzed-string-vs-long-on-es-5-0/65544/3 "2016-11-11T16:08:01Z")
I'd use the slug as the \_id of the document so long as it is reasonably short. We already index \_uid (type + id) as a string so you may as well use it. ---
**Author:** ![ddorian43](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ddorian43/32/36093_2.png) [@ddorian43](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ddorian43)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2016, 4:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unanalyzed-string-vs-long-on-es-5-0/65544/4 "2016-11-11T16:23:04Z")
@nik9000 Note that I'm asking what to store as a field in the mapping, not "\_id". But something like "field\_id" that I will later filter on (only on equality, no ranges). ---
**Author:** ![nik9000](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/nik9000/32/44947_2.png) [@nik9000](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nik9000)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2016, 4:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unanalyzed-string-vs-long-on-es-5-0/65544/5 "2016-11-11T16:50:28Z")
> [@ddorian43](#): > > Note that I'm asking what to store as a field in the mapping And I'm telling you that you can get away with adding neither to your mapping and using the slug as the id. I don't know off hand whether it'd be better to add a string or a number to the mapping. It is worth testing, I think. So long as you won't be aggregating or sorting on the field I'd turn off doc\_values for it to save space. ---
**Author:** ![ddorian43](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ddorian43/32/36093_2.png) [@ddorian43](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ddorian43)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2016, 4:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unanalyzed-string-vs-long-on-es-5-0/65544/6 "2016-11-11T16:53:07Z")
... I'm saying that will have other documents on es that will have a field called "field\_id" that I will use to filter on. That "thing\_id" can be either string/long. I wasn't asking about storing the original "thing" document on es. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 4:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unanalyzed-string-vs-long-on-es-5-0/65544/7 "2016-12-09T16:53:11Z")
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