# ElasticSearch / Solr dis\_max query skipping matching clauses

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-solr-dis-max-query-skipping-matching-clauses/284427>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [September 16, 2021, 5:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-solr-dis-max-query-skipping-matching-clauses/284427 "2021-09-16T17:43:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![andreaschiffo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/andreaschiffo/32/93563_2.png) [@andreaschiffo](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/andreaschiffo)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2021, 5:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-solr-dis-max-query-skipping-matching-clauses/284427/1 "2021-09-16T17:43:22Z")

</div>

I have an Elasticsearch index on one shard, for which I'm running a `[dis_max][4]` query that, given some user details

_(First Name, Last Name, Date of Birth, Address, Phone, Username, Email etc.)_

queries users from an index combining a set of criteria/matching clauses.

E.g.

- _match username_ (`[fuzzy][1]`, boosted 2x)
- _should match first and last name_ (`[bool][3]` combining `[match-term][2]` query for FN and LN, boosted 1.1x)
- _must match FN, LN and DOB_ (`[bool][3]` combining `[fuzzy][1]` for FN and LN and `[match-term][2]` for DOB, boosted 3x)
- _match phone_ (`[match-term][2]` boosted 2x)

etc.

(See resources  
[1]: [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-fuzzy-query.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-fuzzy-query.html)  
[2]: [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-term-query.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-term-query.html)  
[3]: [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-bool-query.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-bool-query.html)  
[4]: [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-dis-max-query.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-dis-max-query.html) )

See query below (with obscured input data):

[https://gist.github.com/andreaschiffo/bf5ebeac1d6875a1a78dbb9e2eb8e19b](https://gist.github.com/andreaschiffo/bf5ebeac1d6875a1a78dbb9e2eb8e19b)

All criteria account for a _score_  
and I've set a `tie_breaker` to `0.5` so that the score of a result will be the max amongst all the scores, plus `0.5` times the rest of the scores.

Performing the query with few input combinations,

- on some instances I get good scores that make for good matching,
- on other instances, even expecting same or high enough score I get a very low score because some of the most relevant matching clauses seem to be skipped.

I have in fact debugged the query execution with `"explain": true` and in the explanation

- the first result scores a high value with all query clauses,
- the second one (that from the data should score enough) just scores a low value and some clauses don't appear in the explanation as if they were excluded/ignored.

**I'd like to understand why these would be ignored/skipped in some cases.  
Is anybody aware if this could be an issue in the way ES builds queryes into Solr?**

See result example below (all data obscured but the results would be quite close in the distinct fields).

[https://gist.github.com/andreaschiffo/e8c3d6b2f86c53ba6a28257d47a1831b](https://gist.github.com/andreaschiffo/e8c3d6b2f86c53ba6a28257d47a1831b)

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<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:** [October 14, 2021, 5:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-solr-dis-max-query-skipping-matching-clauses/284427/2 "2021-10-14T17:43:50Z")

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