# Comparing two strings 'without ETL'- using Elasticsearch

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/comparing-two-strings-without-etl-using-elasticsearch/142406>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [July 31, 2018, 3:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/comparing-two-strings-without-etl-using-elasticsearch/142406 "2018-07-31T15:39:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MPurcell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc348/32.png) [@MPurcell](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/MPurcell)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 3:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/comparing-two-strings-without-etl-using-elasticsearch/142406/1 "2018-07-31T15:39:32Z")

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Hello, recently I was asked whether it was possible to compare two string with Elasticsearch, without actually indexing any documents. For example, say I have two strings: "the brown fox" and "the brown fox here". Would it be possible to compare these two strings, without indexing at least one of them? In this example, say the second string was in a 'text' field for a document in an index. I could then use a match\_phrase on the first term -for the text field - and it would pick up the document in the index that has the second term. Is there anyway to compare these two strings using Elasticsearch without having at least one of the strings in an index?

I personally don't think it's possible. But I would like a second opinion to know for sure! Thank you.

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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:** [August 28, 2018, 3:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/comparing-two-strings-without-etl-using-elasticsearch/142406/2 "2018-08-28T15:39:33Z")

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