# Use date field to copy year to another field index **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [June 5, 2019, 3:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/use-date-field-to-copy-year-to-another-field-index/184416 "2019-06-05T15:59:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dlaprade](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dlaprade/32/47576_2.png) [@dlaprade](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dlaprade)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 3:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/use-date-field-to-copy-year-to-another-field-index/184416/1 "2019-06-05T15:59:57Z")
Elasticsearch version: 6.3 Situation: I have a date field that contains a full date: `"releaseDate" : { "type" : "date", "format" : "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ" }` I would like to copy the year out of a that field into another field. Is this possible to do at index time? ---
**Author:** ![dlaprade](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dlaprade/32/47576_2.png) [@dlaprade](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dlaprade)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 6:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/use-date-field-to-copy-year-to-another-field-index/184416/2 "2019-06-05T18:43:54Z")
I realize that I could use 'copy\_to' to copy the "releaseDate" into another field that uses a normalizer with a char\_filter to strip out the year but the "copy\_to" documentation states: > You cannot copy recursively via intermediary fields Maybe that is why this doesn't work: ``` "releaseDate" : { "type" : "date", "format" : "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ", "copy_to":"releaseYear" }, "releaseYear" : { "type": "keyword", "normalizer": "year_filtered_normalizer", "copy_to": "searchterms" }, ``` And I tried: ``` "releaseDate" : { "type" : "date", "format" : "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ", "fields" : { "year" : { "type": "keyword", "normalizer": "year_filtered_normalizer", "copy_to": "searchterms" } } }, ``` The above gives my an error on indexing: > "copy\_to in multi fields is not allowed. Found the copy\_to in field [year] which is within a multi field." Is it possible to even do what I want using settings/mappings? ---
**Author:** ![gabriel\_tessier](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/gabriel_tessier/32/27911_2.png) [@gabriel\_tessier](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/gabriel_tessier)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2019, 8:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/use-date-field-to-copy-year-to-another-field-index/184416/3 "2019-06-06T08:45:16Z")
Hi, Did you check about ingest to reformat your date? [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/date-processor.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/date-processor.html) ---
**Author:** ![dlaprade](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dlaprade/32/47576_2.png) [@dlaprade](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dlaprade)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2019, 8:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/use-date-field-to-copy-year-to-another-field-index/184416/4 "2019-06-06T20:26:17Z")
When using Elastic version 6.7, I created an ingest pipeline with a given name. ``` { "description" : "A pre-processor to handle pulling the release year out of the releaseDate field.", "processors": [ { "date": { "field": "releaseDate", "target_field": "releaseYear", "formats": [ "yyyy" ], "ignore_failure" : true } } ] } ``` I created a new index that set the default\_pipeline to be my created pipeline. ``` "settings": { "default_pipeline": "my-pipeline", ``` When re-indexing the data into the new index, ingest pipeline does not fire and therefore the year field does not get populated. Am I doing something incorrectly? ---
**Author:** ![gabriel\_tessier](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/gabriel_tessier/32/27911_2.png) [@gabriel\_tessier](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/gabriel_tessier)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 12:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/use-date-field-to-copy-year-to-another-field-index/184416/5 "2019-06-07T00:34:19Z")
Hi, without ```auto "ignore_failure" : true ``` Did you have error message if the year is not set there's certainly a raised error. ---
**Author:** ![dlaprade](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dlaprade/32/47576_2.png) [@dlaprade](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dlaprade)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 3:33pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/use-date-field-to-copy-year-to-another-field-index/184416/6 "2019-06-07T15:33:08Z")
In my current data set, all records have a releaseDate . ---
**Author:** ![gabriel\_tessier](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/gabriel_tessier/32/27911_2.png) [@gabriel\_tessier](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/gabriel_tessier)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 5:35am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/use-date-field-to-copy-year-to-another-field-index/184416/7 "2019-06-08T05:35:51Z")
but if you remove ignore\_failure do you have any error message that can help? Or better can you provide an example of document that you store, it can help to reproduce the problem. ---
**Author:** ![spinscale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/spinscale/32/25011_2.png) [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2019, 1:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/use-date-field-to-copy-year-to-another-field-index/184416/8 "2019-06-10T13:37:50Z")
How about this ```auto POST _ingest/pipeline/_simulate { "pipeline": { "description": "_description", "processors": [ { "script": { "lang": "painless", "source": "ctx.year = ZonedDateTime.parse(ctx.foo).getYear()" } } ] }, "docs": [ { "_source": { "foo": "2019-06-17T12:34:56.789Z" } } ] } ``` ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2019, 1:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/use-date-field-to-copy-year-to-another-field-index/184416/9 "2019-07-08T13:37:51Z")
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