ElasticSearch - Cant not sort by distance location - "status": 500 - elasticsearch

Question

Target: search people and sort their name by the distance from their location to my location (input lat lon)
I input many rows of data like this :
{"index":{"_id":"1"}}
{"account_number":1,"location":[22.23, 23.12],"balance":39225,"firstname":"Amber","lastname":"Duke","age":32,"gender":"M","address":"880 Holmes Lane","employer":"Pyrami","email":"amberduke#pyrami.com","city":"Brogan","state":"IL"}
Notice the location here I input "location":[22.23, 23.12]
For simplicity, the below is the mapping of firstname, lastname and location
{
"lat_lon_test2": {
"mappings": {
"properties": {
"firstname": {
"type": "text",
"fields": {
"keyword": {
"type": "keyword",
"ignore_above": 256
}
}
},
"lastname": {
"type": "text",
"fields": {
"keyword": {
"type": "keyword",
"ignore_above": 256
}
}
},
"location": {
"type": "float"
},
..........................................
This my trial:
GET localhost:9200/lat_lon_test2/_search?pretty
{
"query":
{
"multi_match":
{
"fields":["firstname", "lastname"],
"minimum_should_match": "80%",
"query": "Hattie"
}
}
,
"sort": [
{
"_geo_distance": {
"location": [
40.715,
-73.998 //my input location
],
"order": "asc",
"unit": "km",
"distance_type": "plane"
}
}
]
}
I got this result :
{
"error": {
"root_cause": [
{
"type": "class_cast_exception",
"reason": "class org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.plain.SortedNumericIndexFieldData cannot be cast to class org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.IndexGeoPointFieldData (org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.plain.SortedNumericIndexFieldData and org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.IndexGeoPointFieldData are in unnamed module of loader 'app')"
}
],
"type": "search_phase_execution_exception",
"reason": "all shards failed",
"phase": "query",
"grouped": true,
"failed_shards": [
{
"shard": 0,
"index": "lat_lon_test2",
"node": "oyC0x3WNRC-3ok_TzAMT2w",
"reason": {
"type": "class_cast_exception",
"reason": "class org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.plain.SortedNumericIndexFieldData cannot be cast to class org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.IndexGeoPointFieldData (org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.plain.SortedNumericIndexFieldData and org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.IndexGeoPointFieldData are in unnamed module of loader 'app')"
}
}
],
"caused_by": {
"type": "class_cast_exception",
"reason": "class org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.plain.SortedNumericIndexFieldData cannot be cast to class org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.IndexGeoPointFieldData (org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.plain.SortedNumericIndexFieldData and org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.IndexGeoPointFieldData are in unnamed module of loader 'app')",
"caused_by": {
"type": "class_cast_exception",
"reason": "class org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.plain.SortedNumericIndexFieldData cannot be cast to class org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.IndexGeoPointFieldData (org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.plain.SortedNumericIndexFieldData and org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.IndexGeoPointFieldData are in unnamed module of loader 'app')"
}
}
},
"status": 500
}
I realise that I need to mapping location to geopoint
I did this:
PUT localhost:9200/lat_lon_test2/_mapping
{
"properties": {
"location": {
"type": "geo_point"
}
}
}
I got this result:
{
"error": {
"root_cause": [
{
"type": "illegal_argument_exception",
"reason": "mapper [location] cannot be changed from type [float] to [geo_point]"
}
],
"type": "illegal_argument_exception",
"reason": "mapper [location] cannot be changed from type [float] to [geo_point]"
},
"status": 400
}
My version: 7.9.3
Sorry for long post

Answer 1

You are changing the data-type of location from float to geo_point which is not possible, hence the exception, please create a new index with proper mapping and reindex all data according to the new data-type to fix the issue.
Please refer to the section on update mapping of a field and what is covered and what is not covered, Also If you need to change the mapping of a field in other indices, create a new index with the correct mapping and reindex your data into that index.