Indexing and searching strings with periods (".")

[rsk]

How can I set up indexing and searching to disregard periods when matching strings?

For example, if I search for USA I want USA and U.S.A to be returned. Likewise, U.S.A. should return both U.S.A. and USA.

I know I can use synonyms for this but I'd prefer not to have to specify the synonyms ahead of time.

Thanks!

[moy2010 (Moises Garcia Marquez)]

You could use a char filter and map the dot to be analyzed as an empty string, and use this char filter for both your index and search analyzer.

[moy2010 (Moises Garcia Marquez)]

Another solution would be to use the word delimiter token filter and catenate everything or only words, so that both U.S.A. and USA are valid tokens appearing on your index.

[immavalls (Imma)]

You could try defyning a mapping char filter analyzer (https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/analysis-mapping-charfilter.html) or a pattern replace char filter analyzer: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/analysis-pattern-replace-charfilter.html.

PUT my_index
{
  "settings": {
    "analysis": {
      "analyzer": {
        "my_analyzer": {
          "tokenizer": "standard",
          "char_filter": [
            "my_char_filter"
          ]
        }
      },
      "char_filter": {
        "my_char_filter": {
          "type": "pattern_replace",
          "pattern": "\\.",
          "replacement": ""
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

POST my_index/_analyze
{
  "analyzer": "my_analyzer",
  "text": "u.s.a."
}

[rsk]

Thank you. The word delimiter token filter does the job!