# Update/remove a field document

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-remove-a-field-document/40477>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [January 29, 2016, 1:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-remove-a-field-document/40477 "2016-01-29T13:03:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![living\_jordi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/living_jordi/32/61363_2.png) [@living\_jordi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/living_jordi)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 1:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-remove-a-field-document/40477/1 "2016-01-29T13:03:52Z")

</div>

Imagine a class as:

```
class DummyClass
{
    String field1;
    String field2;
}

```

I'm able to create an `DummyClass` object and save it on ES:

```
DummyClass dummy = new DummyClass();
dummy.field1 = "sample1";
dummy.field2 = "sample2";

byte[] source = this.jacksonMapper.writeValueAsBytes(dummy);
this.elasticsearchResources.getElasticsearchClient()
    .prepareIndex()
	.setIndex("index")
	.setType("type")
	.setSource(source)
    .request();

```

`source`'s content is:

```
{
    "field1": "sample1",
    "field2": "sample2"
}

```

So, I need to do a change like: `dummy.field1 = null`, so I need `field1` is deleted (I don't want ES set `field1 = null`).

So, I've tried this:

```
 dummy.field1 = null;

 byte[] source = this.jacksonMapper.writeValueAsBytes(dummy);

 this.elasticsearchResources.getElasticsearchClient()
		.prepareUpdate()
		.setIndex("index")
		.setType(type)
		.setId(id.toString())
		.setDoc(source)
		.setUpsert(source)
		.setDetectNoop(true)
        .request();

```

`source`'s content is:

```
{
    "field2": "sample2"
}

```

After that, ES doesn't delete `field1` from document.  
I'm not quite able to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 11:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-remove-a-field-document/40477/2 "2017-07-05T23:20:22Z")

</div>