# Update Where or Locking with ElasticSearch?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-where-or-locking-with-elasticsearch/9834>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [November 27, 2012, 5:49am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-where-or-locking-with-elasticsearch/9834 "2012-11-27T05:49:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tbrianjones](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/tbrianjones/32/1402_2.png) [@tbrianjones](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/tbrianjones)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 5:49am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-where-or-locking-with-elasticsearch/9834/1 "2012-11-27T05:49:36Z")

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I have a document property in an ElasticSearch index called 'processing.'  
It's a boolean value that records whether or not an external program is  
running that is working with that document. I am running many external  
processors, but documents cannot be processed by multiple programs at once.

Am I able to select a document that is not being processed and update the  
'processing' property to TRUE without another processor sneaking in and  
choosing the document? Is there an UPDATE WHERE type operation I can  
perform that will return the \_id of the document that was updated?

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**Author:** ![Clinton\_Gormley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@Clinton\_Gormley](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Clinton_Gormley)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 8:32am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-where-or-locking-with-elasticsearch/9834/2 "2012-11-27T08:32:48Z")

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On Mon, 2012-11-26 at 21:49 -0800, Brian Jones wrote:

> I have a document property in an Elasticsearch index called  
> 'processing.' It's a boolean value that records whether or not an  
> external program is running that is working with that document. I am  
> running many external processors, but documents cannot be processed by  
> multiple programs at once.
> 
> Am I able to select a document that is not being processed and update  
> the 'processing' property to TRUE without another processor sneaking  
> in and choosing the document? Is there an UPDATE WHERE type operation  
> I can perform that will return the \_id of the document that was  
> updated?

Yes you can - use the update api, pass the current version number and  
leave retry\_on\_conflict set to zero:

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>
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alternatively, you could just use the create and delete APIs. If you try  
to create a document with a particular ID and it fails, then something  
else has already created it. Once the job is done, delete the document.

clint

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 3:02am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-where-or-locking-with-elasticsearch/9834/3 "2017-07-06T03:02:51Z")

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