---
title: doc_values
description: Most fields are indexed by default, which makes them searchable. The inverted index allows queries to look up the search term in unique sorted list of...
url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/doc-values
products:
  - Elasticsearch
applies_to:
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless: Generally available
  - Elastic Stack: Generally available
---

# doc_values
Most fields are [indexed](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/mapping-index) by default, which makes them searchable. The inverted index allows queries to look up the search term in unique sorted list of terms, and from that immediately have access to the list of documents that contain the term.
Sorting, aggregations, and access to field values in scripts requires a different data access pattern. Instead of looking up the term and finding documents, we need to be able to look up the document and find the terms that it has in a field.
The `doc_values` field is an on-disk data structure that is built at document index time and enables efficient data access. It stores the same values as `_source`, but in a columnar format that is more efficient for sorting and aggregation.
Doc values are supported on most field types, excluding `text` and `annotated_text` fields. See also [Disabling doc values](#_disabling_doc_values).

## Doc-value-only fields

[Numeric types](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/number), [date types](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/date), the [boolean type](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/boolean), [ip type](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/ip), [geo_point type](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/geo-point) and the [keyword type](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/keyword) can also be queried when they are not [indexed](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/mapping-index) but only have doc values enabled. Query performance on doc values is much slower than on index structures, but offers an interesting tradeoff between disk usage and query performance for fields that are only rarely queried and where query performance is not as important. This makes doc-value-only fields a good fit for fields that are not expected to be normally used for filtering, for example gauges or counters on metric data.
Doc-value-only fields can be configured as follows:
```json

{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "status_code": { <1>
        "type":  "long"
      },
      "session_id": { <2>
        "type":  "long",
        "index": false
      }
    }
  }
}
```


## Disabling doc values

For all fields that support them, `doc_values` are enabled by default. If you're certain you don't need to sort or aggregate on a field, or access its value from a script, you can disable `doc_values` in order to save disk space.
<note>
  You cannot disable doc values for [`wildcard`](/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/keyword#wildcard-field-type) fields.In some field types, such as [`search_as_you_type`](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/search-as-you-type), doc values appear in API responses but can't be configured. Enabling or disabling `doc_values` for these fields might result in an error or have no effect.
</note>

In the following example, `doc_values` is disabled on one field:
```json

{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "status_code": { <1>
        "type":       "keyword"
      },
      "session_id": { <2>
        "type":       "keyword",
        "doc_values": false
      }
    }
  }
}
```


## Multi-valued doc values note

Elasticsearch supports storing multi-valued fields at index time. Multi-valued fields can be provided as a json array. However in the doc values format, the values aren't stored in the order as was provided at index time. Additionally, duplicates may be lost.
This implementation detail of doc values is visible when features directly interact with doc values, which may be the case for example in ES|QL or aggregations in the search API. Note, that _source always returns arrays in the way that was provided at index time.
How the ordering differs depends on whether the array is mapped as keyword or a numeric field type. In case of the `keyword` field type, the multi-valued values for each document are ordered lexicographically and duplicates are lost. If retaining duplicates is important then the `counted_keyword` field type should be used.
In case of numeric field types (e.g. `long`, `double`, `scaled_float`, etc.), the multi-valued values for each document are ordered in natural order and duplicates are retained.

## Doc values skippers

<applies-to>
  - Elastic Stack: Generally available since 9.3
</applies-to>

Doc values skippers are an additional data structure on doc values fields that store summary information for multi-level blocks of documents (currently minimum value, maximum value and doc count).
They can assist fast querying and aggregation over a field without the need for a terms or points index structure, significantly reducing its disk footprint. This is particularly true when the field in question is correlated with the index sort.  For example, timestamp filtered queries in time series indexes can use skippers to filter out large blocks of documents without having to inspect individual field values.
Skippers can be enabled for all fields in an index that are marked as `docvalues=true` and `index=false` by using the index-level setting `index.mapping.use_doc_values_skippers`.  They are enabled by default for [`time_series indexes`](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3016/manage-data/data-store/data-streams/time-series-data-stream-tsds).