# Best approach to use to match new data against already existing indexed data

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-approach-to-use-to-match-new-data-against-already-existing-indexed-data/34063>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [November 6, 2015, 10:33pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-approach-to-use-to-match-new-data-against-already-existing-indexed-data/34063 "2015-11-06T22:33:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![surfdog](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/surfdog/32/5783_2.png) [@surfdog](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/surfdog)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 10:33pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-approach-to-use-to-match-new-data-against-already-existing-indexed-data/34063/1 "2015-11-06T22:33:34Z")

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I have an items database with an elastic search index used for simple matching. I would like to leverage elastic search so that before new items are added, it can be determined if an existing, similar item already exists. An item has a name. New items being added generally have much longer and more descriptive names than existing items. Once a new item is matched to an existing item, I would like the new item's description to be included in attempts to match future items.

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**Author:** ![softwaredoug](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/softwaredoug/32/22681_2.png) [@softwaredoug](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/softwaredoug)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2015, 4:17pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-approach-to-use-to-match-new-data-against-already-existing-indexed-data/34063/2 "2015-11-07T16:17:32Z")

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Have you looked into [more like this](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-mlt-query.html)?

Do you just want to put this on autopilot? Or is ther a human in the loop? On autopilot, more like this could be risky. There's always a chance that the candidate document is not the same with minor edits. However you CAN tune more like this to be very strict (see docs above).

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**Author:** ![surfdog](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/surfdog/32/5783_2.png) [@surfdog](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/surfdog)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2015, 7:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-approach-to-use-to-match-new-data-against-already-existing-indexed-data/34063/3 "2015-11-07T19:15:45Z")

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Thanks for the pointer Doug! No, I have not seen the more like this  
query. It looks promising. Yes, there will be a human in the loop to  
double check the mapping and select from prospective candidates. However,  
where the relevance is high, I am hoping we can get to an auto pilot  
approach.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 11:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/best-approach-to-use-to-match-new-data-against-already-existing-indexed-data/34063/4 "2017-07-05T23:39:58Z")

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