# Date math in a query string is affected by analyzer **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [February 21, 2019, 9:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/date-math-in-a-query-string-is-affected-by-analyzer/169366 "2019-02-21T09:57:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![yraber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yraber](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/yraber)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 9:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/date-math-in-a-query-string-is-affected-by-analyzer/169366/1 "2019-02-21T09:57:46Z")
It seems that a query\_string with date math gets modified by the analyzer, and despite having read all the doc and searched everywhere, I can't find a way around it. Here is a very basic example : ``` PUT twitter/_doc/1 { "user" : "kimchy", "post_date" : "2019-02-01T00:00:00", "message" : "trying out Elasticsearch" } ``` Then ``` GET twitter/_search { "query" : { "query_string" : { "analyzer" : "standard", "query" : "post_date:[now-12M TO *]" } } } ``` Gives no results, my tests seems to indicate that the query is converted from "now-12M" (months) to "now-12m" (minutes). Is there a way around it ? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 10:10am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/date-math-in-a-query-string-is-affected-by-analyzer/169366/2 "2019-02-21T10:10:25Z")
Which version are you using? I don't know if this has ever worked... The only way I found for now is to use: ```auto GET twitter/_search { "query" : { "query_string" : { "query" : "post_date:[now-12M TO *]" } } } ``` ---
**Author:** ![yraber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yraber](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/yraber)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 1:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/date-math-in-a-query-string-is-affected-by-analyzer/169366/3 "2019-02-21T13:15:08Z")
I'm using version 6.6.1 on CentOS7. I really need the analyzer, so this is not really an option for me. The workaround that I have is to calculate the date in my app and concatenate it in the query, as the date string is not affected. But I was wondering if this is a normal behavior. ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/date-math-in-a-query-string-is-affected-by-analyzer/169366/4 "2019-02-21T13:36:05Z")
Why do you need to define the analyzer? Don't your text fields already define it? ---
**Author:** ![yraber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yraber](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/yraber)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 2:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/date-math-in-a-query-string-is-affected-by-analyzer/169366/5 "2019-02-21T14:08:48Z")
The query string comes from a user exposed input field, and it's used for multi-field search. I defined a custom analyzer for it to behave like I wanted : ``` meta_search => { type => 'custom', tokenizer => 'whitespace', filter => [qw/asciifolding lowercase elision/], char_filter => [qw/strip_article/], }, ``` Is there a better/other way to do this ? ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 2:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/date-math-in-a-query-string-is-affected-by-analyzer/169366/6 "2019-02-21T14:21:40Z")
Are you applying this analyzer to text fields in the mapping? ---
**Author:** ![yraber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yraber](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/yraber)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 7:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/date-math-in-a-query-string-is-affected-by-analyzer/169366/7 "2019-02-22T07:54:37Z")
No I only apply this to the search query. I have defined some custom `analyzers` on my fields, but no `search_analyzer`. ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 8:51am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/date-math-in-a-query-string-is-affected-by-analyzer/169366/8 "2019-02-22T08:51:12Z")
Do that then and that should solve your problem IMO. I'm not saying it's not a bug but this is at least a workaround. Could you also try the `simple_query_string` query? ---
**Author:** ![yraber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yraber](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/yraber)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 9:19am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/date-math-in-a-query-string-is-affected-by-analyzer/169366/9 "2019-02-22T09:19:58Z")
I'll try that and see what works best, and I'll post my findings if it can be of any interest for someone with a similar problem. Thank you for your help. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2019, 9:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/date-math-in-a-query-string-is-affected-by-analyzer/169366/10 "2019-03-22T09:20:04Z")
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