# How to search UTF-8 characters in Elastic Search
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-search-utf-8-characters-in-elastic-search/206736
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [November 6, 2019, 6:56am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-search-utf-8-characters-in-elastic-search/206736 "2019-11-06T06:56:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Sadhiya](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sadhiya)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2019, 6:56am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-search-utf-8-characters-in-elastic-search/206736/1 "2019-11-06T06:56:49Z")
I have UTF-8 characters ingested into Elastic search. They got ingested as Json String. When I try to search the documents using Search Query I am getting Parse Error as below:
Parse Error:
reason : Cannot parse 'm-attributes.a\_path\_url:Gällande/PP/Batchprotocololl Kvalitetskontroll/lk000131.pdf' Lexical error at line 1 ,column 82. encountered after "/lk000131.pdf""
Search Query : [http://localhost:9200/system\_metadata\_index/\_search?q=m-attributes.a\_path\_url:Gällande/PP/Batchprotocololl](http://localhost:9200/system_metadata_index/_search?q=m-attributes.a_path_url:G%C3%A4llande/PP/Batchprotocololl) Kvalitetskontroll/lk000131.pdf
Document in Elastic Search: a\_path\_url:Gällande/PP/Batchprotocololl Kvalitetskontroll/lk000131.pdf
But when I search without UTF-8 characters, search is working fine. Please guide me how to search UTF-8 characters using search query.
I searched regarding UTF-8 characters. But i could not get the right answer.
---
### Author:  [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2019, 9:16am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-search-utf-8-characters-in-elastic-search/206736/2 "2019-11-06T09:16:13Z")
just an assumption here: maybe the URL encoding on your side is not correct. In order to rule that out, can you use a the body of a HTTP request for search and use something like this
```auto
POST system_metadata_index/_search
{
"query" : {
"query_string" : {
"query" : "m-attributes.a_path_url:Gällande/PP/Batchprotocololl Kvalitetskontroll/lk000131.pdf"
}
}
}
```
---
### Author:  [@Sadhiya](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sadhiya)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2019, 9:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-search-utf-8-characters-in-elastic-search/206736/3 "2019-11-06T09:29:00Z")
Hey Alex! Thank you for your response..yeah i tried this and works like a charm..But is it a good practice to send json query over HTTP get request?
Also, I cannot use Elasticsearch 7.0 due to compatability issues with Java 1.7 in our system..So i have to send it as a URI query...
---
### Author:  [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2019, 9:47am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-search-utf-8-characters-in-elastic-search/206736/4 "2019-11-06T09:47:11Z")
All the elasticsearch versions support this kind of query since the very early beginning.
I would always opt for the approach I outlined compared to passing the query as part of the URL and have the hassle of proper URL encoding and escaping.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2019, 9:47am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-search-utf-8-characters-in-elastic-search/206736/5 "2019-12-04T09:47:25Z")
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