# Elasticsearch search with symbol "-"

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-search-with-symbol/120656>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [February 20, 2018, 2:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-search-with-symbol/120656 "2018-02-20T14:00:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ec74f913d5a598cda232](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e9a140/32.png) [@ec74f913d5a598cda232](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ec74f913d5a598cda232)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 2:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-search-with-symbol/120656/1 "2018-02-20T14:00:38Z")

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Hi there, I have the following problem:  
I have field "author" and in some documents value is "---".  
And after search: /\_search?q="---" result is empty. With usual values, search works correctly. What can be a solution for this?  
Also, from the official doc: The reserved characters are: + - = && || \> \< ! ( ) { } [] ^ " ~ \* ? : \ /  
I tried to escape this symbols, using leading slash - still nothing in search results

---

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**Author:** ![ec74f913d5a598cda232](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e9a140/32.png) [@ec74f913d5a598cda232](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ec74f913d5a598cda232)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 3:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-search-with-symbol/120656/2 "2018-02-20T15:04:18Z")

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Solved, by adding ".keyword" for fieldName in query from default field mapping

---

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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:** [March 20, 2018, 3:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-search-with-symbol/120656/3 "2018-03-20T15:04:25Z")

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