# Handling tag "weights" **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [August 31, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/handling-tag-weights/3283 "2010-08-31T16:47:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brandonlee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@brandonlee](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/brandonlee)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/handling-tag-weights/3283/1 "2010-08-31T16:47:47Z")
Some of my documents have the following: "tag: [dog, animal, pets]". Is it possible to: 1. influence index scoring based on score for each tag with something along "tag: {dog: 0.5, animal: 0.3, pets: 0.4}" 2. influence search scoring for each word, so on "hello dog" I would decide that "hello" is 0.3 and "dog" is 0.8 (I believe this is hello^0.3, dog^0.8 in lucene) Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![kimchy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/kimchy/32/44952_2.png) [@kimchy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kimchy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 6:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/handling-tag-weights/3283/2 "2010-08-31T18:24:01Z")
Index scoring options is really just the boost option (on a field or a document). There is a way to store extra information per term indexed, and then have a custom query that takes that into account when scoring (thats actually what the \_all support does internally to support having custom boost value per field). In order to support something similar to boosting, just on term level (like is this case), then it need s to be exposed. Not terribly difficult to implement, just interesting on how to best expose it as an API. Regarding custom search time scoring, which usually is enough and not require index time scoring, then you can either you boosting per query created (each query element accepts a boost, like term query or field query), which is actually the same as the dog^0.3. Or use the custom\_score query for complete, script level support for scoring. -shay.banon On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 7:47 PM, brandonlee [mluggy@gmail.com](mailto:mluggy@gmail.com) wrote: > Some of my documents have the following: "tag: [dog, animal, pets]". > Is it possible to: > > 1. influence index scoring based on score for each tag with something > along "tag: {dog: 0.5, animal: 0.3, pets: 0.4}" > > 2. influence search scoring for each word, so on "hello dog" I would > decide that "hello" is 0.3 and "dog" is 0.8 (I believe this is > hello^0.3, dog^0.8 in lucene) > > Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![brandonlee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@brandonlee](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/brandonlee)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 7:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/handling-tag-weights/3283/3 "2010-08-31T19:04:29Z")
While we're waiting for it to be exposed on the index API, do you think one of the following would work for "tag: {dog: 0.5, animal: 0.3, pets: 0.4}"? which is better? 1. Duplicating the number of occurrences for each tag, so we'll have 5 times "dog", 3 times "animal" and 4 times "pets" 2. Defining 3 fields with "dog" on a 0.5 boosted "tag05" field, "animal" on a 0.3 boosted "tag03", etc. 3. Defining 3 fields (tag1-tag3) but setting different boost levels based on each document's list of tags I keep reading your comments that custom\_score query is slow but how slow? is there any limitations to the number of variables? Thanks Shay! On Aug 31, 9:24 pm, Shay Banon [shay.ba...@elasticsearch.com](mailto:shay.ba...@elasticsearch.com) wrote: > Index scoring options is really just the boost option (on a field or a > document). There is a way to store extra information per term indexed, and > then have a custom query that takes that into account when scoring (thats > actually what the \_all support does internally to support having custom > boost value per field). > > In order to support something similar to boosting, just on term level (like > is this case), then it need s to be exposed. Not terribly difficult to > implement, just interesting on how to best expose it as an API. > > Regarding custom search time scoring, which usually is enough and not > require index time scoring, then you can either you boosting per query > created (each query element accepts a boost, like term query or field > query), which is actually the same as the dog^0.3. Or use the custom\_score > query for complete, script level support for scoring. > > -shay.banon > > On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 7:47 PM, brandonlee [mlu...@gmail.com](mailto:mlu...@gmail.com) wrote: > > > Some of my documents have the following: "tag: [dog, animal, pets]". > > Is it possible to: > > > 1. influence index scoring based on score for each tag with something > > along "tag: {dog: 0.5, animal: 0.3, pets: 0.4}" > > > 1. influence search scoring for each word, so on "hello dog" I would > > decide that "hello" is 0.3 and "dog" is 0.8 (I believe this is > > hello^0.3, dog^0.8 in lucene) > > > Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![kimchy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/kimchy/32/44952_2.png) [@kimchy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kimchy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/handling-tag-weights/3283/4 "2010-08-31T20:31:55Z")
I think that you should first try and solve it on the search side. If you know the weights when you do a search, you can either construct a query that applies different boosts depending the tag, or use custom\_score query. custom\_score query is slower than other queries, but I suggest you run and check if its ok for you (with actual data, and relevant index size). The good thing is that if its slow for you (and slow here means both latency and QPS under load), you can always add more replicas and more machines to separate the load. -shay.banon On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 10:04 PM, brandonlee [mluggy@gmail.com](mailto:mluggy@gmail.com) wrote: > While we're waiting for it to be exposed on the index API, do you > think one of the following would work for "tag: {dog: 0.5, animal: > 0.3, pets: 0.4}"? which is better? > > 1. Duplicating the number of occurrences for each tag, so we'll have 5 > times "dog", 3 times "animal" and 4 times "pets" > 2. Defining 3 fields with "dog" on a 0.5 boosted "tag05" field, > "animal" on a 0.3 boosted "tag03", etc. > 3. Defining 3 fields (tag1-tag3) but setting different boost levels > based on each document's list of tags > > I keep reading your comments that custom\_score query is slow but how > slow? is there any limitations to the number of variables? > > Thanks Shay! > > On Aug 31, 9:24 pm, Shay Banon [shay.ba...@elasticsearch.com](mailto:shay.ba...@elasticsearch.com) wrote: > > > Index scoring options is really just the boost option (on a field or a > > document). There is a way to store extra information per term indexed, > > and > > then have a custom query that takes that into account when scoring (thats > > actually what the \_all support does internally to support having custom > > boost value per field). > > > > In order to support something similar to boosting, just on term level > > (like > > is this case), then it need s to be exposed. Not terribly difficult to > > implement, just interesting on how to best expose it as an API. > > > > Regarding custom search time scoring, which usually is enough and not > > require index time scoring, then you can either you boosting per query > > created (each query element accepts a boost, like term query or field > > query), which is actually the same as the dog^0.3. Or use the > > custom\_score > > query for complete, script level support for scoring. > > > > -shay.banon > > > > On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 7:47 PM, brandonlee [mlu...@gmail.com](mailto:mlu...@gmail.com) wrote: > > > > > Some of my documents have the following: "tag: [dog, animal, pets]". > > > Is it possible to: > > > > > 1. influence index scoring based on score for each tag with something > > > along "tag: {dog: 0.5, animal: 0.3, pets: 0.4}" > > > > > 1. influence search scoring for each word, so on "hello dog" I would > > > decide that "hello" is 0.3 and "dog" is 0.8 (I believe this is > > > hello^0.3, dog^0.8 in lucene) > > > > > Thanks! ---
**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, 4:19am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/handling-tag-weights/3283/5 "2017-07-06T04:19:59Z")