Right way to handle nested objects with type "nested"

Question

I have an array field with type "nested". In this field i have multiple objects. This is JSON example:

{
  "users" : [
    {
      "first" : "John",
      "last" :  "Smith"
    },
    {
      "first" : "Alice",
      "last" :  "White"
    }
  ]
}

I expect the same structure after indexing. This is part of my mapping:

},
"users": {
    "dynamic": false,
    "type": "nested",
    "properties": {
        "first": {
            "type": "text"
         },
         "last": {
             "type": "text"
        },
    }
}

But after indexing i get this structure:

    
users
    
[
  {
    "first": [
      "John"
    ],
    "last": [
      "Smith"
    ],
  },
  {
    "first": [
      "Alice"
    ],
    "last": [
      "White"
    ],
  },]

What i am doing wrong? Is this behavior expected? How i can handle nested objects?

I need only text fields, not text fields in array. Search works fine, but data format after mapping is confusing.

Delete indexes, change mapping, refresh indexes. Set dynamic: true and false. Change field types.

Musab Dogan · Accepted Answer · 2023-12-22 10:49:25Z

1

It's working as expected for me. I'm using ES v8.

PUT my-index-000001
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "users": {
        "dynamic": false,
        "type": "nested",
        "properties": {
          "first": {
            "type": "text"
          },
          "last": {
            "type": "text"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

PUT my-index-000001/_doc/1
{
  "group" : "fans",
  "users" : [
    {
      "first" : "John",
      "last" :  "Smith"
    },
    {
      "first" : "Alice",
      "last" :  "White"
    }
  ]
}

GET my-index-000001/_search
{
  "query": {
    "nested": {
      "path": "users",
      "query": {
        "bool": {
          "must": [
            { "match": { "users.first": "Alice" }},
            { "match": { "users.last":  "White" }} 
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

answered Dec 22, 2023 at 10:49

Musab Dogan

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2 Comments

Aleks Kisel Over a year ago

Yes, you're right. For some reason, in the Kibana interface, such fields look like an array. But they are actually stored as regular values. After your answer, I guessed to make an API request and found out this difference in display.

Musab Dogan Over a year ago

Happy to hear you solved it.

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