ALTER SEARCH INDEX SCHEMA

Modify the search index pending schema.

Use the RELOAD SEARCH INDEX command to apply changes to the active schema.

Space saving profiles apply only to the initial creation of the search index. For example, if the index was created using a resource_generation_profile, like spaceSavingSlowTriePrecision, and later a numeric column is added to the index using the ALTER command, the trie fields precisionStep of the new column is not set to '0'.

Restriction: Command available only on DSE Search nodes. Running search index management commands on large datasets can take longer than the CQLSH default timeout of 10 minutes. Increase the CQLSH client timeout as required.

Synopsis

ALTER SEARCH INDEX SCHEMA ON [<keyspace_name>.]<table_name>
  ( ADD <field column_name>
  | ADD <element_path> [ <attribute_list> ] WITH $$ <json_map> $$
  | SET <element_identifier> = '<value>'
  | DROP <field field_name>
  | DROP <element_identifier> ) ;

Syntax legend

Legend
Syntax conventions	Description
UPPERCASE	Literal keyword.
Lowercase	Not literal.
`< >`	Variable value. Replace with a user-defined value.
`[]`	Optional. Square brackets (`[]`) surround optional command arguments. Do not type the square brackets.
`( )`	Group. Parentheses ( `( )` ) identify a group to choose from. Do not type the parentheses.
`\|`	Or. A vertical bar (`\|`) separates alternative elements. Type any one of the elements. Do not type the vertical bar.
`...`	Repeatable. An ellipsis ( `...` ) indicates that you can repeat the syntax element as often as required.
`'<Literal string>'`	Single quotation (`'`) marks must surround literal strings in CQL statements. Use single quotation marks to preserve upper case.
`{ <key> : <value> }`	Map collection. Braces (`{ }`) enclose map collections or key value pairs. A colon separates the key and the value.
`<datatype2`	Set, list, map, or tuple. Angle brackets ( `< >` ) enclose data types in a set, list, map, or tuple. Separate the data types with a comma.
`<cql_statement>;`	End CQL statement. A semicolon (`;`) terminates all CQL statements.
`[--]`	Separate the command line options from the command arguments with two hyphens ( `--` ). This syntax is useful when arguments might be mistaken for command line options.
`' <<schema\> ... </schema\>> '`	Search CQL only: Single quotation marks (`'`) surround an entire XML schema declaration.
`@<xml_entity>='<xml_entity_type>'`	Search CQL only: Identify the entity and literal value to overwrite the XML element in the schema and solrConfig files.

Variables

column_name

Identifies a table column. The search index field and associated type are automatically defined.

keyspace_name.table_name

Identifies the table of the search index; keyspace name is required when the table is not in the active keyspace.

element_path

Identifies the XML path to the setting. Separate child elements using a period. For example:

types.fieldTypes

attribute_list

A comma-separated list of attributes value pairs enclosed in braces using the following syntax:

[@<attribute_name> = '<value>',
@<attribute_name> = '<value>', ... ]

json_map

Advanced. Use JSON format to define child elements, such as analyzer tokenizer and filter definitions of field type.

{ "element_name" : [
                  { "child_element_name" : { "child_attribute_name" : "value" } } ,
                  { "child_element_name" : { "child_attribute_name" : "value" } }, ... ],
"element_name" : [
                  { "child_element_name" : { "child_attribute_name" : "value" } } ,
                  { "child_element_name" : { "child_attribute_name" : "value" } }, ... ], ... }

element_identifier

Identifies the XML path to the setting. To locate an element with specific attribute, use the following syntax.

<element_name>[@<attribute_name>='<value>']

ADD

Insert a new type, field, or other settings in the pending schema.

DROP

Remove a table column that corresponds directly to a field or one of the following configurations from the pending schema. The required attributes by element are:

field - name attribute
fieldType - name attribute
dynamicField - name attribute
copyField - source and dest See Managing search index fields and Dropping columns from the index in the documentation.

SET

Change the configuration of a setting in the pending schema.

EBNF

EBNF syntax:

alterSearchIndex ::= 'ALTER' 'SEARCH' 'INDEX' 'SCHEMA'
          'ON' tableName
          (
          ('ADD' elementPath 'WITH' json) |
          ('ADD' 'FIELD' fieldName) |
          ('SET' elementPath('@' attribute)? '=' value) |
          ('DROP' elementPath('@' attribute)?) |
          ('DROP' 'FIELD' fieldName)
          )
          tableName        ::= (keyspace '.')? table
          elementPath      ::= elementName
          ('[' '@' attributeName '=' attributeValue
          (',' '@' attributeName '=' attributeValue)* ']')?
          ( '.' elementName ('[' '@' attributeName '=' attributeValue
          (',' '@' attributeName '=' attributeValue)* ']')?)*

Railroad diagram:

alterSearchIndex

tableName

elementPath

Examples

The search index schema is altered for the cycling.comments keyspace and table, and the specified options.

For extensive information and examples on search indexes, including adding and dropping search index fields, field types, field classes, tuples, UDTs, and map columns, see Managing search index fields.

You must add the search index before you can alter it.

Add a new field using the element path and attribute list

Fields that do not exist in the table can be added to index to combine multiple columns into a single indexed field for searches.

Adding the leading element fields. in ADD fields.field fieldname is optional and provides only cosmetic structure.

  ALTER SEARCH INDEX SCHEMA ON cycling.comments 
    ADD fields.field[@name='fieldname', @type='StrField', @multiValued = 'false', @indexed='true'];

To apply the schema changes:

  RELOAD SEARCH INDEX ON cycling.comments;

Add a table column to the index

Automatically creates a field definition and adds the field type if required for a field that is not already indexed.

  ALTER SEARCH INDEX SCHEMA ON cycling.comments 
    ADD FIELD record_id;