# Update type of a field in Elasticsearch
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-type-of-a-field-in-elasticsearch/47964
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [April 20, 2016, 8:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-type-of-a-field-in-elasticsearch/47964 "2016-04-20T20:49:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ashwintumma](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ashwintumma)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2016, 8:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-type-of-a-field-in-elasticsearch/47964/1 "2016-04-20T20:49:53Z")
I have a index in Elasticsearch, and want to update the type of a field named currentTimeStamp from `long` to `date`, so that Kibana can work on it. Following is my current output of `_mapping` (Other fields have been removed for brevity).
```
{
"myIndexname": {
"mappings": {
"myType": {
"properties": {
"currentTimeStamp": {
"type": "long"
}
}
}
}
}
}
```
When I try to run the following command for updating the type of the column to date type, I get the below mentioned error response. Any help on this is highly appreciated.
`curl -X PUT myIndexname/_mapping/myType` with the following payload
```
{
"myIndexname": {
"properties": {
"currentTimeStamp": {
"type": "date",
"format": "date_optional_time || epoch_millis"
}
}
}
}
```
Error response:
```
{
"error": {
"root_cause": [
{
"type": "mapper_parsing_exception",
"reason": "Root mapping definition has unsupported parameters: [optimizationframework : {properties={currentTimeStamp={type=date, format=date_optional_time || epoch_millis}}}]"
}
],
"type": "mapper_parsing_exception",
"reason": "Root mapping definition has unsupported parameters: [optimizationframework : {properties={currentTimeStamp={type=date, format=date_optional_time || epoch_millis}}}]"
},
"status": 400
}
```
---
### Author:  [@abhijat](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/abhijat)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2016, 10:54pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-type-of-a-field-in-elasticsearch/47964/2 "2016-04-20T22:54:22Z")
> [@ashwintumma](#):
>
> "format": "date\_optional\_time || epoch\_millis"
Does it matter if there is space before and after ||? In their docs I do not see it. [Date field type | Elasticsearch Guide [8.11] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/date.html)
---
### Author:  [@ashwintumma](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ashwintumma)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2016, 12:06am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-type-of-a-field-in-elasticsearch/47964/3 "2016-04-21T00:06:51Z")
No difference. I tried without spaces, and still does not work
---
### Author:  [@anhlqn](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/anhlqn)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2016, 2:09am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-type-of-a-field-in-elasticsearch/47964/4 "2016-04-21T02:09:29Z")
You cannot change data type of a field in an existing index. Need to create a new mapping type and reindex your data. Search for reindex API in the Elastic document if you are running ES 2.3.0
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 10:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-type-of-a-field-in-elasticsearch/47964/5 "2017-07-05T22:57:31Z")