# Including a filter with a query string

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/including-a-filter-with-a-query-string/172859>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [March 18, 2019, 7:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/including-a-filter-with-a-query-string/172859 "2019-03-18T19:52:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Vincent\_Stevenson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/vincent_stevenson/32/48477_2.png) [@Vincent\_Stevenson](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Vincent_Stevenson)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 7:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/including-a-filter-with-a-query-string/172859/1 "2019-03-18T19:52:05Z")

</div>

What does the JSON query look like that includes a filter with the query string? If I am querying an index and want to filter results that come back with my query string, I tried the following:

```auto
GET animals/_search
{
  "query": {
    "query_string": {
      "query": "dog"
    },
    "filter": {
      "should" : [
        {"match" : {"color" : "brown"}}  
      ]
    }
  }
}

```

But I get a message saying:

```auto
"error": {
    "root_cause": [
      {
        "type": "parsing_exception",
        "reason": "[query_string] malformed query, expected [END_OBJECT] but found [FIELD_NAME]",
        "line": 6,
        "col": 5
      }
    ],
    "type": "parsing_exception",
    "reason": "[query_string] 

```

Is is possible to include filters with query strings?

Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gbrown](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/gbrown/32/34482_2.png) [@gbrown](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/gbrown)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 9:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/including-a-filter-with-a-query-string/172859/2 "2019-03-18T21:43:50Z")

</div>

You absolutely can do this! You want a [bool query](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-bool-query.html), like so:

```auto
GET animals/_search
{
  "query": {
    "bool": {
      "must": [
        {
          "query_string": {
            "query": "dog"
          }
        }
      ],
      "filter": [
        {
          "match": {
            "color": "brown"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Vincent\_Stevenson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/vincent_stevenson/32/48477_2.png) [@Vincent\_Stevenson](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Vincent_Stevenson)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 11:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/including-a-filter-with-a-query-string/172859/3 "2019-03-18T23:02:52Z")

</div>

Thanks!

Also, if I had different fields, is there a way I can add a section to the query to boost specific fields? If I wanted to place an emphasis on color over body type, what would it look like?

Thanks again!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 11:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/including-a-filter-with-a-query-string/172859/4 "2019-04-15T23:02:57Z")

</div>

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