elasticsearch: strings in integer field

0: create the mapping

curl -XPUT "https://localhost:9200/int_vs_str_test" -d '{"mappings": { "foo" : { "properties": { "label_id": { "type": "integer"}}}}}'

{"acknowledged":true}

1: extract the mapping

curl -XGET "https://127.0.0.1:9200/int_vs_str_test/_mapping/foo?pretty=1"
{
  "int_vs_str_test" : {
    "mappings" : {
      "foo" : {
        "properties" : {
          "label_id" : {
            "type" : "integer"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

2: insert doc with mixed strings and int

curl -XPUT "https://localhost:9200/int_vs_str_test/foo/1" -d '{"label_id" : [1,"2",3]}'

{"_index":"int_vs_str_test","_type":"foo","_id":"1","_version":1,"_shards":{"total":2,"successful":2,"failed":0},"created"
:true}

3: extract the doc

curl -XGET "https://127.0.0.1:9200/int_vs_str_test/foo/1?pretty=1"
{
  "_index" : "int_vs_str_test",
  "_type" : "foo",
  "_id" : "1",
  "_version" : 1,
  "found" : true,
  "_source" : {
    "label_id" : [ 1, "2", 3 ]
  }
}

3: insert doc with mixed strings in an implied long field:

curl -XPUT "https://rdb.dev.ziprecruiter.com:9200/int_vs_str_test/foo/1?pretty=1" -d '
{"implicit_long" : [1,"2",3]}'

{
  "error" : {
    "root_cause" : [ {
      "type" : "mapper_parsing_exception",
      "reason" : "failed to parse"
    } ],
    "type" : "mapper_parsing_exception",
    "reason" : "failed to parse",
    "caused_by" : {
      "type" : "illegal_argument_exception",
      "reason" : "mapper [implicit_long] of different type, current_type [long], merged_type [string]"
    }
  },
  "status" : 400
}

4: explicit long

curl -XPUT "https://localhost:9200/int_vs_str_test/_mapping/foo?pretty=1" -d '
{"properties": {"explicit_long": {"type": "long"}}}'

{
  "acknowledged" : true
}


curl -XPUT "https://localhost:9200/int_vs_str_test/foo/1?pretty=1" -d '{"explicit_long" : [1,"2",3]}'
{
  "_index" : "int_vs_str_test",
  "_type" : "foo",
  "_id" : "1",
  "_version" : 2,
  "_shards" : {
    "total" : 2,
    "successful" : 2,
    "failed" : 0
  },
  "created" : false
}

curl -XGET "https://rdb.dev.ziprecruiter.com:9200/int_vs_str_test/foo/1?pretty=1"

{
  "_index" : "int_vs_str_test",
  "_type" : "foo",
  "_id" : "1",
  "_version" : 2,
  "found" : true,
  "_source" : {
    "explicit_long" : [ 1, "2", 3 ]
  }
}

Elasticsearch allows me to insert string values into integer fields. Why does this work? Can I make it store "2" as 2?

I run into an issue using groovy scripting and .contains()

ctx._source["label_ids"].contains(1) <== True
ctx._source["label_ids"].contains(2) <== False
ctx._source["label_ids"].contains("2") <== True