# Matches query equivalent to terms query

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/matches-query-equivalent-to-terms-query/253030>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [October 22, 2020, 3:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/matches-query-equivalent-to-terms-query/253030 "2020-10-22T15:02:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Faiz\_Ahmed\_Mushtak\_H](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/faiz_ahmed_mushtak_h/32/47387_2.png) [@Faiz\_Ahmed\_Mushtak\_H](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Faiz_Ahmed_Mushtak_H)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 3:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/matches-query-equivalent-to-terms-query/253030/1 "2020-10-22T15:02:04Z")

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I'd like to know why elasticsearch doesn't support array of values for different kinds of queries.

As of now i'm only looking for something like matches (something similar to terms query where array of terms are accepted)

The sole reason being to reduce the size of the query in general & because a match clause for each string causes the max-clause-count threshold to be breached

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**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood/32/10538_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 3:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/matches-query-equivalent-to-terms-query/253030/2 "2020-10-22T15:07:24Z")

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Hi Faiz.  
A `match` query takes a typically unstructured string and _tokenizes_ it into multiple values behind the scenes.  
A `terms` query takes structured strings that are already tokenized and presented in an array.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Faiz\_Ahmed\_Mushtak\_H](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/faiz_ahmed_mushtak_h/32/47387_2.png) [@Faiz\_Ahmed\_Mushtak\_H](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Faiz_Ahmed_Mushtak_H)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 6:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/matches-query-equivalent-to-terms-query/253030/3 "2020-10-22T18:19:56Z")

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so you're suggesting i can just concatenate multiple strings into a single string?

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 6:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/matches-query-equivalent-to-terms-query/253030/4 "2020-11-19T18:20:06Z")

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