--- mapped_pages: - https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/mapping-types.html --- # Field data types [mapping-types] Each field has a *field data type*, or *field type*. This type indicates the kind of data the field contains, such as strings or boolean values, and its intended use. For example, you can index strings to both `text` and `keyword` fields. However, `text` field values are [analyzed](docs-content://manage-data/data-store/text-analysis.md) for full-text search while `keyword` strings are left as-is for filtering and sorting. Field types are grouped by *family*. Types in the same family have exactly the same search behavior but may have different space usage or performance characteristics. Currently, there are two type families, `keyword` and `text`. Other type families have only a single field type. For example, the `boolean` type family consists of one field type: `boolean`. ### Common types [_core_datatypes] [`binary`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/binary.md) : Binary value encoded as a Base64 string. [`boolean`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/boolean.md) : `true` and `false` values. [Keywords](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/keyword.md) : The keyword family, including `keyword`, `constant_keyword`, and `wildcard`. [Numbers](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/number.md) : Numeric types, such as `long` and `double`, used to express amounts. Dates : Date types, including [`date`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/date.md) and [`date_nanos`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/date_nanos.md). [`alias`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/field-alias.md) : Defines an alias for an existing field. ### Objects and relational types [object-types] [`object`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/object.md) : A JSON object. [`flattened`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/flattened.md) : An entire JSON object as a single field value. [`nested`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/nested.md) : A JSON object that preserves the relationship between its subfields. [`join`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/parent-join.md) : Defines a parent/child relationship for documents in the same index. [`passthrough`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/passthrough.md) : Provides aliases for sub-fields at the same level. ### Structured data types [structured-data-types] [Range](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/range.md) : Range types, such as `long_range`, `double_range`, `date_range`, and `ip_range`. [`ip`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/ip.md) : IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. [`version`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/version.md) : Software versions. Supports [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/) precedence rules. [`murmur3`](/reference/elasticsearch-plugins/mapper-murmur3.md) : Compute and stores hashes of values. ### Aggregate data types [aggregated-data-types] [`aggregate_metric_double`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/aggregate-metric-double.md) : Pre-aggregated metric values. [`histogram`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/histogram.md) : Pre-aggregated numerical values in the form of a histogram. ### Text search types [text-search-types] [`text` fields](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/text.md) : The text family, including `text` and `match_only_text`. Analyzed, unstructured text. [`annotated-text`](/reference/elasticsearch-plugins/mapper-annotated-text.md) : Text containing special markup. Used for identifying named entities. [`completion`] : Used for auto-complete suggestions. For more information about completion suggesters, refer to [](/reference/elasticsearch/rest-apis/search-suggesters.md). [`search_as_you_type`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/search-as-you-type.md) : `text`-like type for as-you-type completion. [`semantic_text`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/semantic-text.md) : Used for performing [semantic search](docs-content://solutions/search/semantic-search.md). [`token_count`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/token-count.md) : A count of tokens in a text. ### Document ranking types [document-ranking-types] [`dense_vector`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/dense-vector.md) : Records dense vectors of float values. [`sparse_vector`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/sparse-vector.md) : Records sparse vectors of float values. [`rank_feature`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/rank-feature.md) : Records a numeric feature to boost hits at query time. [`rank_features`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/rank-features.md) : Records numeric features to boost hits at query time. ### Spatial data types [spatial_datatypes] [`geo_point`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/geo-point.md) : Latitude and longitude points. [`geo_shape`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/geo-shape.md) : Complex shapes, such as polygons. [`point`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/point.md) : Arbitrary cartesian points. [`shape`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/shape.md) : Arbitrary cartesian geometries. ### Other types [other-types] [`percolator`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/percolator.md) : Indexes queries written in [Query DSL](/reference/query-languages/querydsl.md). ## Arrays [types-array-handling] In {{es}}, arrays do not require a dedicated field data type. Any field can contain zero or more values by default, however, all values in the array must be of the same field type. See [Arrays](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/array.md). ## Multi-fields [types-multi-fields] It is often useful to index the same field in different ways for different purposes. For instance, a `string` field could be mapped as a `text` field for full-text search, and as a `keyword` field for sorting or aggregations. Alternatively, you could index a text field with the [`standard` analyzer](/reference/text-analysis/analysis-standard-analyzer.md), the [`english`](/reference/text-analysis/analysis-lang-analyzer.md#english-analyzer) analyzer, and the [`french` analyzer](/reference/text-analysis/analysis-lang-analyzer.md#french-analyzer). This is the purpose of *multi-fields*. Most field types support multi-fields via the [`fields`](/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/multi-fields.md) parameter.