# Highlight when query contains fields and text - ES 1.6.0
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/highlight-when-query-contains-fields-and-text-es-1-6-0/24311
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [June 25, 2015, 7:43am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/highlight-when-query-contains-fields-and-text-es-1-6-0/24311 "2015-06-25T07:43:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@effoeffi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/effoeffi)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2015, 7:43am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/highlight-when-query-contains-fields-and-text-es-1-6-0/24311/1 "2015-06-25T07:43:30Z")
Hello,
I'm using elasticsearch 1.6.0.
Assume having the following document indexed in elasticsearch:
```json
{
"id" : 2,
"user" : "jack",
"message" : "I'm jack",
"comment" : "my first tweet"
}
```
When query:
```json
{
"from" : 0,
"size" : 5,
"query" : {
"query_string" : {
"query" : "user:jack first",
"use_dis_max" : true
}
},
"highlight" : {
"pre_tags" : [""],
"post_tags" : [""],
"order" : "score",
"encoder" : "html",
"require_field_match" : false,
"fields" : {
"*" : {}
}
}
}
```
I'm using "query string query".
As you can see, my query combines field match (user:jack) and text (first).
As a result, elasticsearch will highlight the word jack in both user field and message.
But I query for user:jack, mean I want to highlight only user name jack and not jack in other fields.
I can't set require\_field\_match to true, because than elasticsearch will not highlight 'first'.
What should I do?
Thanks in advance,
Effi
---
### Author:  [@nik9000](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nik9000)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2015, 12:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/highlight-when-query-contains-fields-and-text-es-1-6-0/24311/2 "2015-06-25T12:40:37Z")
The simplest thing is to set require field match to true and to set the
default fields parameter on the query\_string to "message, comment".
---
### Author:  [@effoeffi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/effoeffi)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2015, 1:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/highlight-when-query-contains-fields-and-text-es-1-6-0/24311/3 "2015-06-25T13:06:14Z")
Unfortunately it wouldn't work ☹
This will not highlight the word ' **first**' (like I wrote in the question:
I can't set require\_field\_match to true, because than elasticsearch will not highlight 'first').
---
### Author:  [@nik9000](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nik9000)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2015, 4:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/highlight-when-query-contains-fields-and-text-es-1-6-0/24311/4 "2015-06-25T16:21:27Z")
Sure it will - but only if you explicitly search that field instead of the
\_all field. Do query\_string: {fields: "comment, message", query: "your
query"} and it should work. I've totally done it before but I have to admit
I haven't tested it this morning.
---
### Author:  [@effoeffi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/effoeffi)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2015, 2:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/highlight-when-query-contains-fields-and-text-es-1-6-0/24311/5 "2015-06-28T14:43:56Z")
Wooow, it's working. THANKS! 😃
I don't understand why should I determine that I want highlight on text in the search level (and not at highlight section)?
Another question, let's say my document looks like this:
```json
{
"type": "tweet",
"fields": {
"user" : "jack",
"message" : "I'm jack",
"comment" : "my first tweet"
}
}
```
Can I search on **_fields.\*_** instead of specific fields, like: _{fields: "comment, message", query: "your query"}_?
I understand that on \_all it's not working, but I see in [elasticsearch documentation](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-query-string-query.html) that I can use wildcard, they use the follow example:
```json
{
"query_string" : {
"fields" : ["city.*"],
"query" : "this AND that OR thus",
"use_dis_max" : true
}
}
```
For me it failed with SearchPhaseExecutionException 😟
Any suggestion?
Thanks,
Effi
---
### Author:  [@effoeffi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/effoeffi)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2015, 1:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/highlight-when-query-contains-fields-and-text-es-1-6-0/24311/6 "2015-06-30T13:51:05Z")
Another issue is when adding to query-string fields a field from type that is not string, for example a field name **_times_** from type _long_:
```json
{
"from" : 0,
"size" : 5,
"query" : {
"query_string" : {
"fields" : ["user","message","comment","times"],
"query" : "first times:>1",
"use_dis_max" : true
}
},
"highlight" : {
"pre_tags" : [""],
"post_tags" : [""],
"order" : "score",
"encoder" : "html",
"require_field_match" : false,
"fields" : {
"*" : {}
}
}
}
```
On example data, that looks like this:
```json
{
"type": "tweet",
"fields": {
"user" : "jack",
"message" : "I'm jack",
"comment" : "my first tweet",
"times" : "7"
}
}
```
This will raise a NumberFormatException.
I understand from [elasticsearch doc on "Multi Field"](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-query-string-query.html#_multi_field_2), that the idea of running the query\_string query against multiple fields is to expand each query term to an OR clause like this:
field1:query\_term OR field2:query\_term | ...
In this example, _times:first_ will failed, because _times_ configured as _long_.
Is that mean that I can't highlight fields from type _long_ (other than _string_)?
Thanks,
Effi
---
### Author:  [@nik9000](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nik9000)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2015, 4:25pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/highlight-when-query-contains-fields-and-text-es-1-6-0/24311/7 "2015-06-30T16:25:38Z")
> [@effoeffi](#):
>
> Is that mean that I can't highlight fields from type long (other than string)?
For the most part that is true, yes. Some of the highlighters make an effort to stringify the non-string data first and then do string highlighting against it but that is lame and haphazard. Its not something that's particularly well thought out frankly.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 12:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/highlight-when-query-contains-fields-and-text-es-1-6-0/24311/8 "2017-07-06T00:04:30Z")