# Getting the max theoretical score for a search query **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [April 10, 2014, 3:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/getting-the-max-theoretical-score-for-a-search-query/16927 "2014-04-10T15:02:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Guy\_Bowden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de0a6/32.png) [@Guy\_Bowden](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Guy_Bowden)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 3:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/getting-the-max-theoretical-score-for-a-search-query/16927/1 "2014-04-10T15:02:43Z")
Hi there, is there any way to figure out a maximum theoretical score for a non text search query - something like: "query": { "query\_string": { "query": "location:(1)^3 accommodation\_comfort:(137 OR 193)^2 accommodation\_facilities:(459 OR 403 OR 319)", "default\_operator": "OR", "default\_field": "text", "auto\_generate\_phrase\_queries": true, "analyze\_wildcard": true } } At the moment I'm using Django Haystack to generate the query - so I could build it differently if that helps. Or is there a simple bit of maths I could do based on the number of attributes and the boost scores I'm giving - (assuming that there's no extra boosting going on at index time)? Each document attribute I'm querying is just an array of integers. The search is working fine - I'd just like to be able to know if I have a 100% match, or a 50% match and so on so I can decide if I want to use the returned doc in the next step of the process. i.e. if the max score is 2, I want to do something with the top 40 docs that are over a score of 1.5 (if there's only 20 \>1.5, then that's fine, just those 20, or if there's 60 \>1.5 then only the top 40..) and as the query can change, the max score changes, so "query": "activity:(1) location:(1)^3" - is getting me a max score of 1.264911 because there's not much to search on - (I know because I can see the top results do exactly match..) but a more complex search like "query": "activity:(1) location:(2)^3 accommodation\_facilities:(459 OR 347 OR 319)^1 accommodation\_comfort:(193)^2", is scoring 2.1828206 as a 100% match Thanks Guy -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/075dd752-a6a2-4044-862a-257a2029ee12%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/075dd752-a6a2-4044-862a-257a2029ee12%40googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). ---
**Author:** ![jpountz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jpountz/32/45836_2.png) [@jpountz](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jpountz)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/getting-the-max-theoretical-score-for-a-search-query/16927/2 "2014-04-10T23:57:34Z")
Hi, Although it is generally not advised to return scores as percentages[1], in this particular case it would work given that you are only querying structured attributes and don't care about term frequencies and so on. For this problem, I would recommend using the function\_score query[2], which allows to decide on how scores should be computed. Since you control the score computation, you can know the maximum score and this can be helpful to display the score as a percentage to your users. [1] [ScoresAsPercentages - Apache Lucene (Java) - Apache Software Foundation](http://wiki.apache.org/lucene-java/ScoresAsPercentages) [2] [Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale | Elastic](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/1.x/query-dsl-function-score-query.html) On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 5:02 PM, Guy Bowden [guy@gentianesolutions.com](mailto:guy@gentianesolutions.com)wrote: > Hi there, > > is there any way to figure out a maximum theoretical score for a non text > search query - something like: > > "query": { > "query\_string": { > "query": "location:(1)^3 accommodation\_comfort:(137 OR > 193)^2 accommodation\_facilities:(459 OR 403 OR 319)", > "default\_operator": "OR", > "default\_field": "text", > "auto\_generate\_phrase\_queries": true, > "analyze\_wildcard": true > } > } > > At the moment I'm using Django Haystack to generate the query - so I could > build it differently if that helps. > > Or is there a simple bit of maths I could do based on the number of > attributes and the boost scores I'm giving - (assuming that there's no > extra boosting going on at index time)? > > Each document attribute I'm querying is just an array of integers. > > The search is working fine - I'd just like to be able to know if I have a > 100% match, or a 50% match and so on so I can decide if I want to use the > returned doc in the next step of the process. > > i.e. > > if the max score is 2, I want to do something with the top 40 docs that > are over a score of 1.5 (if there's only 20 \>1.5, then that's fine, just > those 20, or if there's 60 \>1.5 then only the top 40..) > > and as the query can change, the max score changes, so "query": > "activity:(1) location:(1)^3" - is getting me a max score of 1.264911 > because there's not much to search on - (I know because I can see the top > results do exactly match..) > but a more complex search like "query": "activity:(1) location:(2)^3 > accommodation\_facilities:(459 OR 347 OR 319)^1 > accommodation\_comfort:(193)^2", is scoring 2.1828206 as a 100% match > > Thanks > > Guy > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "elasticsearch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > To view this discussion on the web visit > [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/075dd752-a6a2-4044-862a-257a2029ee12%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/075dd752-a6a2-4044-862a-257a2029ee12%40googlegroups.com)[https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/075dd752-a6a2-4044-862a-257a2029ee12%40googlegroups.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/075dd752-a6a2-4044-862a-257a2029ee12%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer) > . > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). -- Adrien Grand -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CAL6Z4j4T1-gKNg5hG503k3AKw9tmoP%3D\_KV0V%2BQpjOm\_Hi7zzBQ%40mail.gmail.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CAL6Z4j4T1-gKNg5hG503k3AKw9tmoP%3D_KV0V%2BQpjOm_Hi7zzBQ%40mail.gmail.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). ---
**Author:** ![Guy\_Bowden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de0a6/32.png) [@Guy\_Bowden](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Guy_Bowden)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 1:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/getting-the-max-theoretical-score-for-a-search-query/16927/3 "2014-04-15T13:14:30Z")
Many thanks Adrien On Friday, April 11, 2014 1:57:34 AM UTC+2, Adrien Grand wrote: > Hi, > > Although it is generally not advised to return scores as percentages[1], > in this particular case it would work given that you are only querying > structured attributes and don't care about term frequencies and so on. > > For this problem, I would recommend using the function\_score query[2], > which allows to decide on how scores should be computed. Since you control > the score computation, you can know the maximum score and this can be > helpful to display the score as a percentage to your users. > > [1] [ScoresAsPercentages - Apache Lucene (Java) - Apache Software Foundation](http://wiki.apache.org/lucene-java/ScoresAsPercentages) > [2] > [Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale | Elastic](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/1.x/query-dsl-function-score-query.html) > > On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 5:02 PM, Guy Bowden \<[g...@gentianesolutions.com](mailto:g...@gentianesolutions.com)\ > > > wrote: > > > Hi there, > > > > is there any way to figure out a maximum theoretical score for a non text > > search query - something like: > > > > "query": { > > "query\_string": { > > "query": "location:(1)^3 accommodation\_comfort:(137 > > OR 193)^2 accommodation\_facilities:(459 OR 403 OR 319)", > > "default\_operator": "OR", > > "default\_field": "text", > > "auto\_generate\_phrase\_queries": true, > > "analyze\_wildcard": true > > } > > } > > > > At the moment I'm using Django Haystack to generate the query - so I > > could build it differently if that helps. > > > > Or is there a simple bit of maths I could do based on the number of > > attributes and the boost scores I'm giving - (assuming that there's no > > extra boosting going on at index time)? > > > > Each document attribute I'm querying is just an array of integers. > > > > The search is working fine - I'd just like to be able to know if I have a > > 100% match, or a 50% match and so on so I can decide if I want to use the > > returned doc in the next step of the process. > > > > i.e. > > > > if the max score is 2, I want to do something with the top 40 docs that > > are over a score of 1.5 (if there's only 20 \>1.5, then that's fine, just > > those 20, or if there's 60 \>1.5 then only the top 40..) > > > > and as the query can change, the max score changes, so "query": > > "activity:(1) location:(1)^3" - is getting me a max score of 1.264911 > > because there's not much to search on - (I know because I can see the top > > results do exactly match..) > > but a more complex search like "query": "activity:(1) location:(2)^3 > > accommodation\_facilities:(459 OR 347 OR 319)^1 > > accommodation\_comfort:(193)^2", is scoring 2.1828206 as a 100% match > > > > Thanks > > > > Guy > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "elasticsearch" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > > email to [elasticsearc...@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearc...@googlegroups.com) \. > > To view this discussion on the web visit > > [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/075dd752-a6a2-4044-862a-257a2029ee12%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/075dd752-a6a2-4044-862a-257a2029ee12%40googlegroups.com)[https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/075dd752-a6a2-4044-862a-257a2029ee12%40googlegroups.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/075dd752-a6a2-4044-862a-257a2029ee12%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer) > > . > > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). > > -- > Adrien Grand -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/82033c84-7daa-4f95-af5a-7dd4ba8e3223%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/82033c84-7daa-4f95-af5a-7dd4ba8e3223%40googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout). ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 1:35am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/getting-the-max-theoretical-score-for-a-search-query/16927/4 "2017-07-06T01:35:45Z")