# Fuzzy query behaviour **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [June 19, 2016, 2:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/fuzzy-query-behaviour/53238 "2016-06-19T14:26:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Patrick\_Kuhlmann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Patrick\_Kuhlmann](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Patrick_Kuhlmann)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2016, 2:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/fuzzy-query-behaviour/53238/1 "2016-06-19T14:26:56Z")
Hi I'm about to make a phonelist with ES. For user experience I want to make the search a fuzzy one ``` localhost:9200/phonelist/users/_search { "query": { "match": { "name": { "query": "Kuhlmann", "fuzziness": "AUTO" } } } } { "took": 7, "timed_out": false, "_shards": { "total": 5, "successful": 4, "failed": 0 }, "hits": { "total": 3, "max_score": 0.47036046, "hits": [ { "_index": "phonelist", "_type": "users", "_id": "AVVo-gmRDI1e6YuRkpxs", "_score": 0.47036046, "_source": { "name": "Karina Kuhlmann", "division": "Service Desk", "age": "29" } }, { "_index": "phonelist", "_type": "users", "_id": "AVVo-SC2DI1e6YuRkpxq", "_score": 0.41156536, "_source": { "name": "Katharina Kullmann", "division": "Team Gehalt", "age": "43" } }, { "_index": "phonelist", "_type": "users", "_id": "AVVo-AkvDI1e6YuRkpxp", "_score": 0.19178301, "_source": { "name": "Patrick Kuhlmann", "division": "D&A", "age": "22" } } ] } } ``` Why doesn't the query return the two exact matches first? Well I had an even more confusing result back then, but I can't rebuild it on this pc. Regards Patrick ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood/32/10538_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 8:08am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/fuzzy-query-behaviour/53238/2 "2016-06-20T08:08:36Z")
What version of elasticsearch are you using? This behaviour should have been fixed a little while ago. ---
**Author:** ![Patrick\_Kuhlmann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Patrick\_Kuhlmann](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Patrick_Kuhlmann)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 9:38am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/fuzzy-query-behaviour/53238/3 "2016-06-20T09:38:42Z")
That was the 2.3.3 Version ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood/32/10538_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 9:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/fuzzy-query-behaviour/53238/4 "2016-06-20T09:46:03Z")
OK - that should include the fix to a 10 year-old Lucene issue [1] that favoured rare over exact matches. Can you post the results of your query with `explain: true` added to the query body? [1] [https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LUCENE-329](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LUCENE-329) ---
**Author:** ![Patrick\_Kuhlmann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Patrick\_Kuhlmann](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Patrick_Kuhlmann)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 10:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/fuzzy-query-behaviour/53238/5 "2016-06-20T10:04:03Z")
``` { "took": 162, "timed_out": false, "_shards": { "total": 5, "successful": 5, "failed": 0 }, "hits": { "total": 11, "max_score": 2.6725237, "hits": [ { "_shard": 0, "_node": "bkGGKQxnRXOgJamFfQtpqw", "_index": "users", "_type": "user", "_id": "_explain", "_score": 2.6725237, "_source": { "query": { "match": { "name": { "query": "Kuhlmann", "operator": "and", "fuzziness": "2" } } } }, "_explanation": { "value": 2.6725237, "description": "sum of:", "details": [ { "value": 2.6725237, "description": "sum of:", "details": [ { "value": 2.6725237, "description": "weight(_all:kuhlmann in 0) [PerFieldSimilarity], result of:", "details": [ { "value": 2.6725237, "description": "score(doc=0,freq=1.0), product of:", "details": [ { "value": 0.79999995, "description": "queryWeight, product of:", "details": [ { "value": 6.6813097, "description": "idf(docFreq=2, maxDocs=880)", "details": [] }, { "value": 0.119737, "description": "queryNorm", "details": [] } ] }, { "value": 3.3406549, "description": "fieldWeight in 0, product of:", "details": [ { "value": 1, "description": "tf(freq=1.0), with freq of:", "details": [ { "value": 1, "description": "termFreq=1.0", "details": [] } ] }, { "value": 6.6813097, "description": "idf(docFreq=2, maxDocs=880)", "details": [] }, { "value": 0.5, "description": "fieldNorm(doc=0)", "details": [] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "value": 0, "description": "match on required clause, product of:", "details": [ { "value": 0, "description": "# clause", "details": [] }, { "value": 0.119737, "description": "_type:user, product of:", "details": [ { "value": 1, "description": "boost", "details": [] }, { "value": 0.119737, "description": "queryNorm", "details": [] } ] } ] } ] } }, { "_shard": 3, "_node": "bkGGKQxnRXOgJamFfQtpqw", "_index": "users", "_type": "user", "_id": "kullmann", "_score": 1.7235754, "_source": { "name": "Katharina Ullmann" }, ``` ---
**Author:** ![Patrick\_Kuhlmann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Patrick\_Kuhlmann](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Patrick_Kuhlmann)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 10:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/fuzzy-query-behaviour/53238/6 "2016-06-20T10:04:35Z")
``` "_explanation": { "value": 1.7235754, "description": "sum of:", "details": [ { "value": 1.7235754, "description": "sum of:", "details": [ { "value": 1.0342314, "description": "weight(_all:kullmann in 404) [PerFieldSimilarity], result of:", "details": [ { "value": 1.0342314, "description": "score(doc=404,freq=3.0), product of:", "details": [ { "value": 0.77466124, "description": "queryWeight, product of:", "details": [ { "value": 0.875, "description": "boost", "details": [] }, { "value": 7.0473723, "description": "idf(docFreq=1, maxDocs=846)", "details": [] }, { "value": 0.12562513, "description": "queryNorm", "details": [] } ] }, { "value": 1.3350757, "description": "fieldWeight in 404, product of:", "details": [ { "value": 1.7320508, "description": "tf(freq=3.0), with freq of:", "details": [ { "value": 3, "description": "termFreq=3.0", "details": [] } ] }, { "value": 7.0473723, "description": "idf(docFreq=1, maxDocs=846)", "details": [] }, { "value": 0.109375, "description": "fieldNorm(doc=404)", "details": [] } ] } ] } ] }, ``` ---
**Author:** ![Patrick\_Kuhlmann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Patrick\_Kuhlmann](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Patrick_Kuhlmann)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 10:05am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/fuzzy-query-behaviour/53238/7 "2016-06-20T10:05:23Z")
``` { "value": 0.689344, "description": "weight(_all:ullmann in 404) [PerFieldSimilarity], result of:", "details": [ { "value": 0.689344, "description": "score(doc=404,freq=2.0), product of:", "details": [ { "value": 0.6323765, "description": "queryWeight, product of:", "details": [ { "value": 0.71428573, "description": "boost", "details": [] }, { "value": 7.0473723, "description": "idf(docFreq=1, maxDocs=846)", "details": [] }, { "value": 0.12562513, "description": "queryNorm", "details": [] } ] }, { "value": 1.0900848, "description": "fieldWeight in 404, product of:", "details": [ { "value": 1.4142135, "description": "tf(freq=2.0), with freq of:", "details": [ { "value": 2, "description": "termFreq=2.0", "details": [] } ] }, { "value": 7.0473723, "description": "idf(docFreq=1, maxDocs=846)", "details": [] }, { "value": 0.109375, "description": "fieldNorm(doc=404)", "details": [] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, ``` ---
**Author:** ![Patrick\_Kuhlmann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Patrick\_Kuhlmann](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Patrick_Kuhlmann)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 10:06am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/fuzzy-query-behaviour/53238/8 "2016-06-20T10:06:24Z")
Sorry couldnt put it all in one post maybe theres some missing code at the end ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood/32/10538_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 10:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/fuzzy-query-behaviour/53238/9 "2016-06-20T10:54:05Z")
I'm having a hard time piecing the JSON together. One initial observation is that I see you are using the default of 5 shards. if your index is small and will remain small (where "small" could still be measured in millions) then consider using a single shard not the default of 5. Accuracy when you have very small amounts of data spread across multiple shards can suffer. ---
**Author:** ![Patrick\_Kuhlmann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Patrick\_Kuhlmann](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Patrick_Kuhlmann)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 11:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/fuzzy-query-behaviour/53238/10 "2016-06-20T11:29:13Z")
Oh ok thanks for noting ---
**Author:** ![Patrick\_Kuhlmann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Patrick\_Kuhlmann](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Patrick_Kuhlmann)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 6:08am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/fuzzy-query-behaviour/53238/11 "2016-06-21T06:08:23Z")
Anyone an idea? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 10:41pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/fuzzy-query-behaviour/53238/12 "2017-07-05T22:41:51Z")