# Multi-match query with filter condition differences between ES2.1.1 and ES.2.3.3

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multi-match-query-with-filter-condition-differences-between-es2-1-1-and-es-2-3-3/80732>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [March 30, 2017, 6:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multi-match-query-with-filter-condition-differences-between-es2-1-1-and-es-2-3-3/80732 "2017-03-30T18:57:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ramdev\_Wudali](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ramdev_wudali/32/7894_2.png) [@Ramdev\_Wudali](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ramdev_Wudali)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 6:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multi-match-query-with-filter-condition-differences-between-es2-1-1-and-es-2-3-3/80732/1 "2017-03-30T18:57:45Z")

</div>

Hi:  
I am running into a problem with multi-match queries with filter conditions on ES 2.3.3. Its not returning the results I am expecting.  
on ES 2.1.1 I get the results in the order I want but on ES 2.3.3. I do not.

Java - 1.8.0\_45  
Oracle linux 6.5

The mapping... :

> ```
> {
> "entity": {
> "properties": {
> "name": {
> "type": "string",
> "fields": {
> "na": {
> "index": "not_analyzed",
> "type": "string"
> },
> "autocomplete": {
> "analyzer": "autocomplete",
> "type": "string"
> }
> }
> },
> "type": {
> "index": "not_analyzed",
> "type": "string"
> }
> }
> }
> }
> 
> ```

My Query does a multi\_match against the name field

> ```
> {
> "query": {
> "bool": {
> "should": [
> {
> "bool": {
> "must": {
> "multi_match": {
> "query": "texas court of appeals, 1s",
> "fields": [
> "name",
> "name.na",
> "name.autocomplete"
> ],
> "type": "best_fields"
> }
> },
> "filter": {
> "term": {
> "type": "date"
> }
> }
> }
> },
> {
> "bool": {
> "must": {
> "bool": {
> "must": {
> "multi_match": {
> "query": "texas court of appeals, 1s",
> "fields": [
> "name",
> "name.na",
> "name.autocomplete"
> ],
> "type": "best_fields"
> }
> },
> "filter": {
> "term": {
> "type": "court"
> }
> }
> }
> }
> }
> }
> ]
> }
> }
> }
> 
> ```

While I get the right document back in ES 2.1.1, on ES 2.3.3 I do not . and the matching document is not in top 10 or 20 documents.

If I remove the name.na field from the multi\_match query, the query works like expected. If it is just one specific type (court) in the outermost bool query, the query returns the correct document.

So My question is :  
Did the multi\_match implementation change between versions 2.1.1 and 2.3.3 to cause this behavior ?

Any assistance is much appreciated.

Thanks

Ramdev

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![polyfractal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/polyfractal/32/48162_2.png) [@polyfractal](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/polyfractal)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 12:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multi-match-query-with-filter-condition-differences-between-es2-1-1-and-es-2-3-3/80732/2 "2017-03-31T12:20:27Z")

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I'm not aware of any changes between those two versions, although that doesn't rule it out.

How many documents are in your index? How many shards? This may be a difference due to how the two versions physically placed the documents. Because scores are generated on a per-shard basis, the doc frequency (e.g. how many documents hold the term) are shard-local. When you only have a small number of documents, the placement on physical shards can often affect scoring simply because the shard-local DFs change.

You could try re-running your searches with [`dfs_query_then_fetch`](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/search-request-search-type.html#dfs-query-then-fetch) which does a pre-search to find all DFs so that scoring is "global".

Alternatively, perhaps run the [explain api](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/search-explain.html) to see how/why each document matched, which may give you some clues.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ramdev\_Wudali](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ramdev_wudali/32/7894_2.png) [@Ramdev\_Wudali](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ramdev_Wudali)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 12:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multi-match-query-with-filter-condition-differences-between-es2-1-1-and-es-2-3-3/80732/3 "2017-03-31T12:43:47Z")

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Hi Zachary:  
Thanks for the response. Here are the answers to some of the questions you asked :

1. The index in both instances are in 1 Shard.
2. There are about 1.7M docs in the index. It is a static index, meaning once docs are indexed, the index is no longer touched. (however, there is indexing going on on the Cluster)

Other than perhaps hardware differences, I am not seeing anything obvious with the setup. However, I will try out the explain API and see why docs are ranked differently. (and also the dfs\_query\_then\_fetch - I am not sure it is affected if there is only 1 shard)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![polyfractal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/polyfractal/32/48162_2.png) [@polyfractal](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/polyfractal)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 12:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multi-match-query-with-filter-condition-differences-between-es2-1-1-and-es-2-3-3/80732/4 "2017-03-31T12:49:11Z")

</div>

Ah, yeah, with only one shard you can ignore what I said about different DF's and `dfs_query_then_fetch`... since there is only one shard, everything is "global" for scoring purposes.

I think explain is the way to go from here, that should at least provide some details about how things are being scored.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ramdev\_Wudali](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ramdev_wudali/32/7894_2.png) [@Ramdev\_Wudali](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ramdev_Wudali)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 1:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multi-match-query-with-filter-condition-differences-between-es2-1-1-and-es-2-3-3/80732/5 "2017-03-31T13:23:55Z")

</div>

This is dumbfounding.  
So I just for kicks, tried submitting the query multiple times in rapid succession ( well, quickly, perhaps not rapid) using the sense UI. I found an odd behavior. The results flip flop. meaning every 3rd response is the right one, with a higher score.

I add a sort condition to the query to sort by \_score (default being descending order) for deterministic results.

I can clearly see the score for the wrong result is lower than the right one.

Does this mean something ?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ramdev\_Wudali](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ramdev_wudali/32/7894_2.png) [@Ramdev\_Wudali](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ramdev_Wudali)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 3:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multi-match-query-with-filter-condition-differences-between-es2-1-1-and-es-2-3-3/80732/6 "2017-04-04T15:59:31Z")

</div>

@polyfractal , a follow up question :

In an INdex (index) with a single Type (type), should a search :

index/\_search VS index/type/\_search yield different results ?

If it does return different results, how can I explain the behavior ?

Thanks

Ramdev

---

<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:** [May 2, 2017, 3:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/multi-match-query-with-filter-condition-differences-between-es2-1-1-and-es-2-3-3/80732/7 "2017-05-02T15:59:48Z")

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