# Having hard time matching queries with forward slash & ampersand
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/having-hard-time-matching-queries-with-forward-slash-ampersand/279303
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [July 21, 2021, 6:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/having-hard-time-matching-queries-with-forward-slash-ampersand/279303 "2021-07-21T18:26:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Webtrend\_Inc](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Webtrend_Inc)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2021, 6:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/having-hard-time-matching-queries-with-forward-slash-ampersand/279303/1 "2021-07-21T18:26:20Z")
I want to identify urls like this from our elastic index `http://example.com/?a=1&c=1&s1=1` where the domain name can change. So, I have to rely on matching using the query pattern.
In a nutshell, something like this `*/?a=*&c=*` would be my desired query
From what I have read, the field should be mapped as a keyword rather than a string because tokenization will ignore some characters.
However, after mapping this field as a keyword, the queries are partially working but I cannot use any search expressions which has `/` or `&` sign. Here is my query
```auto
GET my_index/_search
{
"query": {
"bool": {
"must": [
{
"nested" : {
"path" : "chain",
"score_mode" : "avg",
"query": {
"query_string" : {
"query" : "*\\?a=*",
"fields": ["chain.query"]
}
}
}
}
]
}
}
}
```
The above query works but if I try to include slash or ampersand (`*\\?a=*\\&c=*`) it does not work. I get 0 results despite having such matching content in the elastic doc.
---
### Author:  [@Webtrend\_Inc](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Webtrend_Inc)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2021, 7:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/having-hard-time-matching-queries-with-forward-slash-ampersand/279303/2 "2021-07-21T19:05:10Z")
Sorry, I was querying the incorrect field that is why I was having this issue. It is solved now. You can ignore this question
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2021, 7:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/having-hard-time-matching-queries-with-forward-slash-ampersand/279303/3 "2021-08-18T19:06:03Z")
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