Date field types in Elasticsearch - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Date Field Types in Elasticsearch

📖 Scenario: You are working with Elasticsearch to store and search event data. Each event has a date field that needs to be stored correctly so you can query by date later.

🎯 Goal: Create an Elasticsearch index mapping with a date field type. Then add a document with a date value and finally query the document by date.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an index mapping with a date field called event_date

Use the strict_date_optional_time||epoch_millis format for the date field

Index a document with event_date set to 2023-12-25T10:00:00Z

Query the document by matching the event_date field

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Storing and searching events, logs, or any data with dates is common in many applications like calendars, monitoring systems, and analytics.

💼 Career

Understanding date field types in Elasticsearch is essential for backend developers, data engineers, and anyone working with search and analytics platforms.

1

Create index mapping with date field

Create an index called events with a mapping that defines a date field named event_date using the format strict_date_optional_time||epoch_millis. Use the PUT method and JSON body as shown.

Elasticsearch

# Use PUT /events with mapping for event_date as date type
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use PUT /events to create the index. Inside mappings, define properties with event_date as type: date and set the format.

2

Index a document with event_date

Index a document into the events index with event_date set to "2023-12-25T10:00:00Z". Use the POST method on /events/_doc with the JSON body.

Elasticsearch

PUT /events
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "event_date": {
        "type": "date",
        "format": "strict_date_optional_time||epoch_millis"
      }
    }
  }
}

# Index a document with event_date
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use POST /events/_doc to add a document. The JSON body must have event_date with the exact date string.

3

Query document by event_date

Write a search query on the events index to find documents where event_date matches "2023-12-25T10:00:00Z". Use the GET method on /events/_search with a match query on event_date.

Elasticsearch

PUT /events
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "event_date": {
        "type": "date",
        "format": "strict_date_optional_time||epoch_millis"
      }
    }
  }
}

POST /events/_doc
{
  "event_date": "2023-12-25T10:00:00Z"
}

# Search for document by event_date
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use GET /events/_search with a JSON body containing a match query on event_date with the exact date string.

4

Display search results

Print the JSON response from the search query to show the matched document with event_date "2023-12-25T10:00:00Z".

Elasticsearch

PUT /events
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "event_date": {
        "type": "date",
        "format": "strict_date_optional_time||epoch_millis"
      }
    }
  }
}

POST /events/_doc
{
  "event_date": "2023-12-25T10:00:00Z"
}

GET /events/_search
{
  "query": {
    "match": {
      "event_date": "2023-12-25T10:00:00Z"
    }
  }
}

# Show the search response here
# Your code here

Need a hint?

The search response JSON should include the document with event_date set to "2023-12-25T10:00:00Z".