# Query String Regex/WildCard Search **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [January 10, 2022, 5:55am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-regex-wildcard-search/293845 "2022-01-10T05:55:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sahil5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sahil5](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sahil5)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 5:55am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-regex-wildcard-search/293845/1 "2022-01-10T05:55:36Z")
Hi Team, **Problem Statement** Search String - "Hello \* World" Expected Output - 1. "Hello First World" 2. "Hello Second World" I need results that contain one word in place of \*. I have tried using query string regex and wildcard but it is not giving expected results. Can anyone please help? ---
**Author:** ![Tomo\_M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@Tomo\_M](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Tomo_M)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 8:52am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-regex-wildcard-search/293845/2 "2022-01-10T08:52:43Z")
Hi, I wonder if you realize "\*" also matches to spaces. It depends on what characters you are using in "words", regex query with "`Hello [!-~] World`" will match to phrases which contain only one word with ASCII characters. Next time, sharing the results and the expected results will give you a more suitable solution. ---
**Author:** ![Sahil5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sahil5](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sahil5)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 9:16am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-regex-wildcard-search/293845/3 "2022-01-10T09:16:57Z")
Hi Tomo\_M, I have tried below query ````auto "query_string": { "query": "/Hello (.*?) World/", "fields": ['abc','xyz'] } }``` The regex is correct to match words between **Hello** and **World** but it is not working with query_string and returning 0 results. ```` ---
**Author:** ![Tomo\_M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@Tomo\_M](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Tomo_M)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 9:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-regex-wildcard-search/293845/4 "2022-01-10T09:24:08Z")
What type of field are you querying on: text, keyword or wildcard? ---
**Author:** ![Sahil5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sahil5](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sahil5)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 9:47am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-regex-wildcard-search/293845/5 "2022-01-10T09:47:03Z")
@Tomo_M I am querying on text fields. ---
**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:** [January 10, 2022, 10:02am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-regex-wildcard-search/293845/6 "2022-01-10T10:02:30Z")
> [@Sahil5](#): > > ```auto > "query_string": { > "query": "/Hello (.*?) World/", > > ``` `text` fields split your JSON strings into multiple words in the index (e.g. `hello`, `brave`, `new` and `world`). Searches always match what is in the index. The above `query_string` regex search is asking for a single word in the index that contains spaces which is not going to exist. Perhaps more simply, you need to use a _phrase_ query to find documents with the multiple words `hello` and `world` but near to each other. This can be done using this syntax in query\_string: ```auto "query_string": { "query": "\"Hello world\"~2" } ``` The quotes mean "find these words next to each other" and the ~2 modifier means "with up to two word positions different". ---
**Author:** ![Sahil5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sahil5](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sahil5)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 10:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-regex-wildcard-search/293845/7 "2022-01-10T10:20:40Z")
Thanks @Mark_Harwood, I want to fetch the string that contain atleast 1 word between **Hello** and **World**. ---
**Author:** ![Tomo\_M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@Tomo\_M](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Tomo_M)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 11:08am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-regex-wildcard-search/293845/8 "2022-01-10T11:08:05Z")
> I wonder if you realize "\*" also matches to spaces. This in my first reply was for "regex query" but not for "query\_string query", sorry. As Mark said, single regex (sandwiched between '/') is matched with single tokens. And it is not able to be used in phrases. Wildcard searches are also not suppoted within phrases. [https://lucene.apache.org/core/2\_9\_4/queryparsersyntax.html](https://lucene.apache.org/core/2_9_4/queryparsersyntax.html) I'm not sure if it has acceptable performance, one possible way is to use wildcard field and use regex query such as " `Hello [!-~] World` " or " `[hH]ello [!-~] [wW]orld` ". One drawback (or possibly advantage) is that words are not analized and no filters such as stemming doesn't work. ---
**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:** [January 10, 2022, 11:11am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-regex-wildcard-search/293845/9 "2022-01-10T11:11:07Z")
> [@Sahil5](#): > > I want to fetch the string that contain atleast 1 word between **Hello** and **World**. Did you try? ```auto "query": "\"Hello world\"~1" ``` ---
**Author:** ![Sahil5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sahil5](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sahil5)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 11:25am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-regex-wildcard-search/293845/10 "2022-01-10T11:25:15Z")
@Mark_Harwood, Yes I have tried the above query and it is also returning me string that contains exact string like this "Hello World". I need results that contain atleast 1 word between **Hello** and **World** ---
**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:** [January 10, 2022, 11:30am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-regex-wildcard-search/293845/11 "2022-01-10T11:30:15Z")
Check out [interval queries](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-intervals-query.html) more complex but more powerful. JSON required.... ---
**Author:** ![Sahil5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sahil5](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sahil5)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 11:30am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-regex-wildcard-search/293845/12 "2022-01-10T11:30:53Z")
Hi @Tomo_M , Wildcard Field is introduced in elastic 7.9. My current elastic version is 5.6. Is there a way to achieve this scenerio in elastic 5.6 ? ---
**Author:** ![Sahil5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sahil5](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sahil5)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 11:32am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-regex-wildcard-search/293845/13 "2022-01-10T11:32:39Z")
@Mark_Harwood Internal Queries is not available in version 5.6. Is there a way to achieve this scenerio in elastic 5.6 ? ---
**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:** [January 10, 2022, 11:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-regex-wildcard-search/293845/14 "2022-01-10T11:57:58Z")
> [@Sahil5](#): > > Is there a way to achieve this scenerio in elastic 5.6 ? See the forerunner, [span queries](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/span-queries.html) ---
**Author:** ![Sahil5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sahil5](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sahil5)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 2:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-regex-wildcard-search/293845/15 "2022-01-11T14:43:13Z")
Hi @Mark_Harwood, I have applied a workaround for this scenario. Below is the query ```auto "query": { "bool": { "must": [ { "bool": { "should": [ { "query_string": { "query": "\"Hello World\"", "fields": [], "phrase_slop": 1 } } ] } }, { "bool": { "must_not": [ { "query_string": { "query": "\"Hello World\"", "fields": [] } } ] } } ] } } } ``` This is working fine, but there is one issue that I am getting. Suppose there is string = "Hello test World Hello" in an index. Then the above query is highlighting **Hello** test **World** and also last **Hello**. I do not want to highlight the last **Hello** because it does not contain **World** after phrase\_slop: 1. Is there any way to handle this scenario? ---
**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:** [January 11, 2022, 10:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-regex-wildcard-search/293845/16 "2022-01-11T22:36:13Z")
We have several highlighter implementations contributed by different parties over time and they differ in their focus eg speed, accuracy etc. I lose track of which are better at respecting phrase match accuracy but it’s worth experimenting with the different types. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 10:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-regex-wildcard-search/293845/17 "2022-02-08T22:36:29Z")
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