# What are the benefits for using "mapping" in ElasticSearch?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-are-the-benefits-for-using-mapping-in-elasticsearch/11322>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [March 26, 2013, 6:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-are-the-benefits-for-using-mapping-in-elasticsearch/11322 "2013-03-26T18:20:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Connie\_Yang](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/connie_yang/32/1167_2.png) [@Connie\_Yang](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Connie_Yang)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 6:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-are-the-benefits-for-using-mapping-in-elasticsearch/11322/1 "2013-03-26T18:20:31Z")

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Assuming that I only have one type for a given index, what are the benefits for defining a "mapping" for it? One reason I can think of is that the mapping makes it easier to access a user-defined type in the search result. On the other hand, if I have a data structure change, I would have to repopulate the mapping and reindex the data, which can problematic in production.

Thanks,  
Connie

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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, 2:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-are-the-benefits-for-using-mapping-in-elasticsearch/11322/2 "2017-07-06T02:44:20Z")

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