# How to do partial matching (including space) in a phrase

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-do-partial-matching-including-space-in-a-phrase/89906>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [June 19, 2017, 8:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-do-partial-matching-including-space-in-a-phrase/89906 "2017-06-19T08:57:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ChelseaCao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@ChelseaCao](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ChelseaCao)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 8:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-do-partial-matching-including-space-in-a-phrase/89906/1 "2017-06-19T08:57:14Z")

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Hey ,

I have a trouble for a following requirements:  
SELECT Name  
from Contacts  
where name like 'FIRST\_WORDS%SECOND\_WORDS%'

e.g. if I intput "Hen Mi", it should return the result including 'Henry Michael'.

However, if I use wildcard in ES, i.e. wildcard:{"Name","Hen_Mi_"}, ES will regard Hen\*Mi as one term to find the match. It will only return the result like 'Henimial ke' for example.

Could anyone can help?Thanks.

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**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 9:27am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-do-partial-matching-including-space-in-a-phrase/89906/2 "2017-06-19T09:27:16Z")

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Don't use wildcards!

Use a edge ngram strategy and the a match query with `hen mi` will work OOTB.

Best

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ChelseaCao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@ChelseaCao](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ChelseaCao)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 9:40am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-do-partial-matching-including-space-in-a-phrase/89906/3 "2017-06-19T09:40:35Z")

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> [@dadoonet](#):
>
> OOTB

Thank you David. Could you make it clearer? how to use edge ngram?

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**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 10:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-do-partial-matching-including-space-in-a-phrase/89906/4 "2017-06-19T10:04:56Z")

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From the docs:

- [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/2.x/\_index\_time\_search\_as\_you\_type.html#\_edge\_n\_grams\_and\_postcodes](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/2.x/_index_time_search_as_you_type.html#_edge_n_grams_and_postcodes)
- [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/5.4/analysis-edgengram-tokenizer.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/5.4/analysis-edgengram-tokenizer.html)

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 10:05am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-do-partial-matching-including-space-in-a-phrase/89906/5 "2017-07-17T10:05:07Z")

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