# How to get positions of the matched string?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-get-positions-of-the-matched-string/291199
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [December 8, 2021, 9:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-get-positions-of-the-matched-string/291199 "2021-12-08T09:34:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@wildansupernova](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/wildansupernova)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2021, 9:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-get-positions-of-the-matched-string/291199/1 "2021-12-08T09:34:20Z")
Sorry I am new to Elasticsearch
I have already searched through internet, some technique I found useful is around highlighting.
But I want to ask is there any way to fulfill this scenario other than using highlighting.
Example
- fieldTextToSearch: "I want to eat"
I will try to match "ant to".
My current solution is just use highlighting and I will traverse the highlighted result for searching the positions. but it seems weird.
What do I want is like below
My ideal search result would be (tokenized space positions)
- startToken=1
- startChar=1
- endToken=2
- endChar=1
If it seems not possible, can it give me the result at least like this? (full text positions )
- startChar = 3
- endChar = 8
can you give me some best practices for this scenario? Thanks a lot
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2022, 9:35am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-get-positions-of-the-matched-string/291199/2 "2022-01-05T09:35:00Z")
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