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Elastic Docs ›Elasticsearch Guide [5.3] ›Mapping ›Field datatypes

Boolean datatype

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Boolean datatype

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Boolean fields accept JSON true and false values, but can also accept strings and numbers which are interpreted as either true or false:

False values

false, "false", "off", "no", "0", "" (empty string), 0, 0.0

True values

Anything that isn’t false.

Deprecated in 5.1.0.

While Elasticsearch will currently accept the above values during index time. Searching a boolean field using these pseudo-boolean values is deprecated. Please use "true" or "false" instead.

Deprecated in 5.3.0.

Usage of any value other than false, "false", true and "true" is deprecated.

For example:

PUT my_index
{
  "mappings": {
    "my_type": {
      "properties": {
        "is_published": {
          "type": "boolean"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

POST my_index/my_type/1
{
  "is_published": "true" 
}

GET my_index/_search
{
  "query": {
    "term": {
      "is_published": true 
    }
  }
}

Indexing a document with "true", which is interpreted as true.

Searching for documents with a JSON true.

Aggregations like the terms aggregation use 1 and 0 for the key, and the strings "true" and "false" for the key_as_string. Boolean fields when used in scripts, return 1 and 0:

POST my_index/my_type/1
{
  "is_published": true
}

POST my_index/my_type/2
{
  "is_published": false
}

GET my_index/_search
{
  "aggs": {
    "publish_state": {
      "terms": {
        "field": "is_published"
      }
    }
  },
  "script_fields": {
    "is_published": {
      "script": {
        "lang": "painless",
        "inline": "doc['is_published'].value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Parameters for boolean fields

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The following parameters are accepted by boolean fields:

boost

Mapping field-level query time boosting. Accepts a floating point number, defaults to 1.0.

doc_values

Should the field be stored on disk in a column-stride fashion, so that it can later be used for sorting, aggregations, or scripting? Accepts true (default) or false.

index

Should the field be searchable? Accepts true (default) and false.

null_value

Accepts any of the true or false values listed above. The value is substituted for any explicit null values. Defaults to null, which means the field is treated as missing.

store

Whether the field value should be stored and retrievable separately from the _source field. Accepts true or false (default).

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