# Compile error when using sparse vector and cosine similarity

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/compile-error-when-using-sparse-vector-and-cosine-similarity/196474>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [August 23, 2019, 9:00am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/compile-error-when-using-sparse-vector-and-cosine-similarity/196474 "2019-08-23T09:00:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pablo\_gps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b5a626/32.png) [@Pablo\_gps](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Pablo_gps)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 9:00am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/compile-error-when-using-sparse-vector-and-cosine-similarity/196474/1 "2019-08-23T09:00:56Z")

</div>

I am trying to use the new functionality for vector fields, but I am running into problems. Let me break down the problem for you:

My documents are json files, with this structure:

```
{"name": "doc_name", "field_1": "doc_id", "field_2": "a_keyword", "text": "a rather long text", "embedding": {"4655": 0.040158602078116556, "4640": 0.040158602078116556}}

```

After creating my index, I am passing a mapping using:

```
curl -X GET "localhost:9200/tutorial/_mapping" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'{
  "properties": {
    "name": {
      "type": "keyword"
    },
    "field_1": {
      "type": "keyword"
    },
    "field_2": {
      "type": "keyword"
    },
    "text": {
      "type": "text"
    },
    "embedding": {
      "type": "sparse_vector"
    }
  }
}'

```

Note that before I included this, Elasticsearch protested when uploading documents, since they had too many fields (each key in embedding was taken as a field called embedding.key). This is not happening now, so this part seemed to be working.

Note also that I always delete my index and start from scratch, just in case.

Then I am trying my query, directly taken [from the documentation](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.3/query-dsl-script-score-query.html#script-score-query-ex-request):

```
curl -X GET "localhost:9200/_search?pretty" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{
  "query": {
    "script_score": {
      "query": {
        "match_all": {}
      },
      "script": {
        "source": "cosineSimilaritySparse(params.queryVector, doc[embedding])",
        "params": {
          "queryVector": {"1703": 0.0261, "1698": 0.0261, "2283": 0.0459, "2263": 0.0523, "3741": 0.0349}
        }
      }
    }
  }
}'

```

But I am getting an `illegal_argument_exception` with reason `Variable [embedding] is not defined.`

What am I doing wrong?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jimczi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jimczi/32/47985_2.png) [@jimczi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jimczi)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 9:13am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/compile-error-when-using-sparse-vector-and-cosine-similarity/196474/2 "2019-08-23T09:13:16Z")

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You need to add quotes around the field name: `doc['embedding']`. You should also add 1 to your cosine similarity measure to prevent the score to be negative like advised in this documentation:  
[https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/master/query-dsl-script-score-query.html#vector-functions](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/master/query-dsl-script-score-query.html#vector-functions)  
`cosineSimilaritySparse(params.queryVector, doc[embedding]) + 1.0`

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pablo\_gps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b5a626/32.png) [@Pablo\_gps](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Pablo_gps)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 9:30am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/compile-error-when-using-sparse-vector-and-cosine-similarity/196474/3 "2019-08-23T09:30:47Z")

</div>

Guess what? That solved it! I had taken and put back those quotes a thousand times to no effect, but it seems I hadn't tried it after I finally solved the mapping, which took me a lot of effort.

And I have taken the chance to add the one, as recommended. A thousand thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 9:30am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/compile-error-when-using-sparse-vector-and-cosine-similarity/196474/4 "2019-09-20T09:30:59Z")

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