# Prefix "and" search

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/prefix-and-search/23418>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [April 27, 2015, 12:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/prefix-and-search/23418 "2015-04-27T12:28:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kathy\_Cashel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/74df32/32.png) [@Kathy\_Cashel](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Kathy_Cashel)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 12:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/prefix-and-search/23418/1 "2015-04-27T12:28:46Z")

</div>

My client wants a search that returns both prefix and exact matches per  
token. Most (but not all) of the text being searched is human names. The  
idea is that "jane smith" and "smith, j" and "j smit" will all return the  
same document, so I'm using tokens.

The trick is that it needs to be an "and" search: all tokens in the search  
string must be present in the results. And the prefix query does not seem  
to offer this option. Edgengram would be a great answer, but the client  
wants results returned alphabetically - using no relevance at all - and the  
long tail on ngram searches makes the alpha sort unfeasible.

So for now I'm using a simple keyword tokenizer (plus some custom  
analyzers) to index, and then splitting the search string on spaces to  
build queries like the below. It seems very awkward / cumbersome / brittle.

All suggestions appreciated.

{  
"query" : {  
"bool" : {  
"must" : [{  
"bool" : {  
"should" : [{  
"match" : {  
"text" : "j"  
}  
}, {  
"prefix" : {  
"text" : "j"  
}  
}  
]  
}  
}, {  
"bool" : {  
"should" : [{  
"match" : {  
"text" : "smith"  
}  
}, {  
"prefix" : {  
"text" : "smith"  
}  
}  
]  
}  
}  
]  
}  
}  
}

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![deepak\_daffodil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@deepak\_daffodil](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/deepak_daffodil)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 12:44pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/prefix-and-search/23418/2 "2015-04-27T12:44:20Z")

</div>

use slop with phrase\_prefix

On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 5:58 PM, Kathy Cashel [kathleencashel@gmail.com](mailto:kathleencashel@gmail.com)  
wrote:

> My client wants a search that returns both prefix and exact matches per  
> token. Most (but not all) of the text being searched is human names. The  
> idea is that "jane smith" and "smith, j" and "j smit" will all return the  
> same document, so I'm using tokens.
> 
> The trick is that it needs to be an "and" search: all tokens in the search  
> string must be present in the results. And the prefix query does not seem  
> to offer this option. Edgengram would be a great answer, but the client  
> wants results returned alphabetically - using no relevance at all - and the  
> long tail on ngram searches makes the alpha sort unfeasible.
> 
> So for now I'm using a simple keyword tokenizer (plus some custom  
> analyzers) to index, and then splitting the search string on spaces to  
> build queries like the below. It seems very awkward / cumbersome / brittle.
> 
> All suggestions appreciated.
> 
> {  
> "query" : {  
> "bool" : {  
> "must" : [{  
> "bool" : {  
> "should" : [{  
> "match" : {  
> "text" : "j"  
> }  
> }, {  
> "prefix" : {  
> "text" : "j"  
> }  
> }  
> ]  
> }  
> }, {  
> "bool" : {  
> "should" : [{  
> "match" : {  
> "text" : "smith"  
> }  
> }, {  
> "prefix" : {  
> "text" : "smith"  
> }  
> }  
> ]  
> }  
> }  
> ]  
> }  
> }  
> }
> 
> --  
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> "elasticsearch" group.  
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an  
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> To view this discussion on the web visit  
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> [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/bf12f1dc-f8d5-4e05-92fa-ce5f36c07d1c%40googlegroups.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/bf12f1dc-f8d5-4e05-92fa-ce5f36c07d1c%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer)  
> .  
> For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout).

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---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kathy\_Cashel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/74df32/32.png) [@Kathy\_Cashel](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Kathy_Cashel)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 11:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/prefix-and-search/23418/3 "2015-04-28T11:44:48Z")

</div>

This looks very promising. Thanks so much Deepak!

Kathy

On Monday, April 27, 2015 at 8:44:28 AM UTC-4, deepak.chauhan wrote:

> use slop with phrase\_prefix
> 
> On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 5:58 PM, Kathy Cashel \<[kathlee...@gmail.com](mailto:kathlee...@gmail.com)  
> \<javascript:\>\> wrote:
> 
> > My client wants a search that returns both prefix and exact matches per  
> > token. Most (but not all) of the text being searched is human names. The  
> > idea is that "jane smith" and "smith, j" and "j smit" will all return the  
> > same document, so I'm using tokens.
> > 
> > The trick is that it needs to be an "and" search: all tokens in the  
> > search string must be present in the results. And the prefix query does not  
> > seem to offer this option. Edgengram would be a great answer, but the  
> > client wants results returned alphabetically - using no relevance at all -  
> > and the long tail on ngram searches makes the alpha sort unfeasible.
> > 
> > So for now I'm using a simple keyword tokenizer (plus some custom  
> > analyzers) to index, and then splitting the search string on spaces to  
> > build queries like the below. It seems very awkward / cumbersome / brittle.
> > 
> > All suggestions appreciated.
> > 
> > {  
> > "query" : {  
> > "bool" : {  
> > "must" : [{  
> > "bool" : {  
> > "should" : [{  
> > "match" : {  
> > "text" : "j"  
> > }  
> > }, {  
> > "prefix" : {  
> > "text" : "j"  
> > }  
> > }  
> > ]  
> > }  
> > }, {  
> > "bool" : {  
> > "should" : [{  
> > "match" : {  
> > "text" : "smith"  
> > }  
> > }, {  
> > "prefix" : {  
> > "text" : "smith"  
> > }  
> > }  
> > ]  
> > }  
> > }  
> > ]  
> > }  
> > }  
> > }
> > 
> > --  
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups  
> > "elasticsearch" group.  
> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an  
> > email to [elasticsearc...@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearc...@googlegroups.com) \<javascript:\>.  
> > To view this discussion on the web visit  
> > [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/bf12f1dc-f8d5-4e05-92fa-ce5f36c07d1c%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/bf12f1dc-f8d5-4e05-92fa-ce5f36c07d1c%40googlegroups.com)  
> > [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/bf12f1dc-f8d5-4e05-92fa-ce5f36c07d1c%40googlegroups.com?utm\_medium=email&utm\_source=footer](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/bf12f1dc-f8d5-4e05-92fa-ce5f36c07d1c%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer)  
> > .  
> > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout).

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<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:** [July 6, 2017, 12:17am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/prefix-and-search/23418/4 "2017-07-06T00:17:27Z")

</div>