# Update only if exist
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-only-if-exist/138059
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [June 30, 2018, 11:27am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-only-if-exist/138059 "2018-06-30T11:27:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@panda2004](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/panda2004)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2018, 11:27am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-only-if-exist/138059/1 "2018-06-30T11:27:49Z")
Hey,
Some of the events sent to my ElasticSearch cluster aren't relevant in case they are related to a document which doesn't exist.
I know I could just make a regular update request, and then get exception about failing to update a missing document. But, I don't believe it's a good practice to throw many exceptions in ElasticSearch neither in my application - as of performance concerns.
So, I thought about using the ctx.op = 'noop' instead.
Remark: timestamp is a field that always exists in any of my existed documents.
Is this going to work?
```
POST myindex/mytype/1/_update
{
"scripted_upsert":true,
"script" : {
"source": "if (ctx._source.timestamp != null) { ctx._source.metadata = params.metadata} else { ctx.op = 'none' }",
"lang": "painless",
"params" : {
"metadata" : "hello"
}
},
"upsert" : {}
}
```
---
### Author:  [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2018, 1:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-only-if-exist/138059/2 "2018-06-30T13:03:42Z")
Would that help? [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.3/docs-index\_.html#operation-type](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.3/docs-index_.html#operation-type)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2018, 1:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-only-if-exist/138059/3 "2018-07-28T13:03:42Z")
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