[[ignore-malformed]]
=== `ignore_malformed`

Sometimes you don't have much control over the data that you receive.  One
user may send a `login` field that is a <<date,`date`>>, and another sends a
`login` field that is an email address.

Trying to index the wrong data type into a field throws an exception by
default, and rejects the whole document.  The `ignore_malformed` parameter, if
set to `true`, allows the exception to be ignored. The malformed field is not
indexed, but other fields in the document are processed normally.

For example:

[source,console]
--------------------------------------------------
PUT my_index
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "number_one": {
        "type": "integer",
        "ignore_malformed": true
      },
      "number_two": {
        "type": "integer"
      }
    }
  }
}

PUT my_index/_doc/1
{
  "text":       "Some text value",
  "number_one": "foo" <1>
}

PUT my_index/_doc/2
{
  "text":       "Some text value",
  "number_two": "foo" <2>
}
--------------------------------------------------
// TEST[catch:bad_request]

<1> This document will have the `text` field indexed, but not the `number_one` field.
<2> This document will be rejected because `number_two` does not allow malformed values.

The `ignore_malformed` setting is currently supported by the following <<mapping-types,mapping types>>:

<<number>>::         `long`, `integer`, `short`, `byte`, `double`, `float`, `half_float`, `scaled_float`
<<date>>::           `date`
<<date_nanos>>::     `date_nanos`
<<geo-point>>::     `geo_point` for lat/lon points
<<geo-shape>>::     `geo_shape` for complex shapes like polygons
<<ip>>::            `ip` for IPv4 and IPv6 addresses

TIP: The `ignore_malformed` setting value can be updated on
existing fields using the <<indices-put-mapping,PUT mapping API>>.

[[ignore-malformed-setting]]
==== Index-level default

The `index.mapping.ignore_malformed` setting can be set on the index level to
ignore malformed content globally across all allowed mapping types.
Mapping types that don't support the setting will ignore it if set on the index level.

[source,console]
--------------------------------------------------
PUT my_index
{
  "settings": {
    "index.mapping.ignore_malformed": true <1>
  },
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "number_one": { <1>
        "type": "byte"
      },
      "number_two": {
        "type": "integer",
        "ignore_malformed": false <2>
      }
    }
  }
}
--------------------------------------------------

<1> The `number_one` field inherits the index-level setting.
<2> The `number_two` field overrides the index-level setting to turn off `ignore_malformed`.

==== Dealing with malformed fields

Malformed fields are silently ignored at indexing time when `ignore_malformed`
is turned on. Whenever possible it is recommended to keep the number of
documents that have a malformed field contained, or queries on this field will
become meaningless. Elasticsearch makes it easy to check how many documents
have malformed fields by using `exists`,`term` or `terms` queries on the special
<<mapping-ignored-field,`_ignored`>> field.

[[json-object-limits]]
==== Limits for JSON Objects
You can't use `ignore_malformed` with the following data types:

* <<nested, Nested data type>>
* <<object, Object data type>>
* <<range, Range data types>>

You also can't use `ignore_malformed` to ignore JSON objects submitted to fields
of the wrong data type. A JSON object is any data surrounded by curly brackets
`"{}"` and includes data mapped to the nested, object, and range data types.

If you submit a JSON object to an unsupported field, {es} will return an error
and reject the entire document regardless of the `ignore_malformed` setting.