# Query\_string not returning results for searches less than 3 characters
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-not-returning-results-for-searches-less-than-3-characters/11603
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [April 16, 2013, 7:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-not-returning-results-for-searches-less-than-3-characters/11603 "2013-04-16T19:08:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Darius\_Riggins](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Darius_Riggins)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2013, 7:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-not-returning-results-for-searches-less-than-3-characters/11603/1 "2013-04-16T19:08:23Z")
I'm trying to search for a term such as at&t by only searching for at&, but
it never works. The field is analyzed and boosted on indexing, and I'm
wondering if the only way to get that to work is to create
a separate not\_analyzed field?
{
"fields": [
"name",
"\_id"
],
"query": {
"query\_string": {
"default\_field": "name",
"query": "at&"
}
}
"size": 15
}
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### Author:  [@simonw\_2](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/simonw_2)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2013, 7:11pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-not-returning-results-for-searches-less-than-3-characters/11603/2 "2013-04-16T19:11:59Z")
ok here is my guess.... you analyzer for the field name tokenizes away the
'&' and drops stopwords such that 'at' never makes it to the index so you
get 0 results?
what analyzer are you using for the name field?
simon
On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 9:08:23 PM UTC+2, Darius Riggins wrote:
> I'm trying to search for a term such as at&t by only searching for at&,
> but it never works. The field is analyzed and boosted on indexing, and I'm
> wondering if the only way to get that to work is to create
> a separate not\_analyzed field?
>
> {
> "fields": [
> "name",
> "\_id"
> ],
> "query": {
> "query\_string": {
> "default\_field": "name",
> "query": "at&"
> }
> }
> "size": 15
> }
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### Author:  [@Darius\_Riggins](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Darius_Riggins)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2013, 7:33pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-not-returning-results-for-searches-less-than-3-characters/11603/3 "2013-04-16T19:33:17Z")
I'm guessing the default one, that field I didn't do anything special
besides adding a sort field to it. Would it work if I add a new field that
is not analyzed?
On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 3:11:59 PM UTC-4, simonw wrote:
> ok here is my guess.... you analyzer for the field name tokenizes away the
> '&' and drops stopwords such that 'at' never makes it to the index so you
> get 0 results?
>
> what analyzer are you using for the name field?
>
> simon
>
> On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 9:08:23 PM UTC+2, Darius Riggins wrote:
>
> > I'm trying to search for a term such as at&t by only searching for at&,
> > but it never works. The field is analyzed and boosted on indexing, and I'm
> > wondering if the only way to get that to work is to create
> > a separate not\_analyzed field?
> >
> > {
> > "fields": [
> > "name",
> > "\_id"
> > ],
> > "query": {
> > "query\_string": {
> > "default\_field": "name",
> > "query": "at&"
> > }
> > }
> > "size": 15
> > }
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### Author:  [@simonw\_2](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/simonw_2)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2013, 8:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-not-returning-results-for-searches-less-than-3-characters/11603/4 "2013-04-17T20:07:25Z")
with the default analyzer you will see the behaviour I explained above. If
you use some other analyzer that doesn't drop stopwords you should be fine.
simon
On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 9:33:17 PM UTC+2, Darius Riggins wrote:
> I'm guessing the default one, that field I didn't do anything special
> besides adding a sort field to it. Would it work if I add a new field that
> is not analyzed?
>
> On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 3:11:59 PM UTC-4, simonw wrote:
>
> > ok here is my guess.... you analyzer for the field name tokenizes away
> > the '&' and drops stopwords such that 'at' never makes it to the index so
> > you get 0 results?
> >
> > what analyzer are you using for the name field?
> >
> > simon
> >
> > On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 9:08:23 PM UTC+2, Darius Riggins wrote:
> >
> > > I'm trying to search for a term such as at&t by only searching for at&,
> > > but it never works. The field is analyzed and boosted on indexing, and I'm
> > > wondering if the only way to get that to work is to create
> > > a separate not\_analyzed field?
> > >
> > > {
> > > "fields": [
> > > "name",
> > > "\_id"
> > > ],
> > > "query": {
> > > "query\_string": {
> > > "default\_field": "name",
> > > "query": "at&"
> > > }
> > > }
> > > "size": 15
> > > }
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### Author:  [@Darius\_Riggins](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Darius_Riggins)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2013, 8:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-not-returning-results-for-searches-less-than-3-characters/11603/5 "2013-04-17T20:43:00Z")
Oddly I tried a few other ones, such as simple or lowercase, or keyword,
really was just throwing things at that point. Making a new psuedo-field
and setting to not\_analyzed worked fine, not the best option in my case as
I have to then use a wildcard query to get the behavior I want, but I can
live with it as I get the results fine now. Thanks for the help.
On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 3:08:23 PM UTC-4, Darius Riggins wrote:
> I'm trying to search for a term such as at&t by only searching for at&,
> but it never works. The field is analyzed and boosted on indexing, and I'm
> wondering if the only way to get that to work is to create
> a separate not\_analyzed field?
>
> {
> "fields": [
> "name",
> "\_id"
> ],
> "query": {
> "query\_string": {
> "default\_field": "name",
> "query": "at&"
> }
> }
> "size": 15
> }
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 2:40am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-not-returning-results-for-searches-less-than-3-characters/11603/6 "2017-07-06T02:40:43Z")