# Indexing and searching strings with periods (".")
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indexing-and-searching-strings-with-periods/118919
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [February 7, 2018, 8:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indexing-and-searching-strings-with-periods/118919 "2018-02-07T20:15:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@rsk](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/rsk)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2018, 8:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indexing-and-searching-strings-with-periods/118919/1 "2018-02-07T20:15:53Z")
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!
---
### Author:  [@moy2010](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/moy2010)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2018, 9:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indexing-and-searching-strings-with-periods/118919/2 "2018-02-07T21:19:40Z")
You could use a [char filter](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/analysis-mapping-charfilter.html) and map the dot to be analyzed as an empty string, and use this char filter for both your index and search analyzer.
---
### Author:  [@moy2010](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/moy2010)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2018, 9:22pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indexing-and-searching-strings-with-periods/118919/3 "2018-02-07T21:22:28Z")
Another solution would be to use the [word delimiter token filter](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/analysis-word-delimiter-tokenfilter.html) and catenate everything or only words, so that both U.S.A. and USA are valid tokens appearing on your index.
---
### Author:  [@immavalls](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/immavalls)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2018, 9:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indexing-and-searching-strings-with-periods/118919/4 "2018-02-07T21:30:42Z")
You could try defyning a mapping char filter analyzer ([https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/analysis-mapping-charfilter.html](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](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."
}
```
---
### Author:  [@rsk](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/rsk)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2018, 10:22pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indexing-and-searching-strings-with-periods/118919/5 "2018-02-17T22:22:53Z")
Thank you. The word delimiter token filter does the job!
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 10:22pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/indexing-and-searching-strings-with-periods/118919/6 "2018-03-17T22:22:57Z")
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