# "query\_string" Wildcard search with special characters issue **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [November 2, 2020, 6:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-wildcard-search-with-special-characters-issue/254068 "2020-11-02T18:20:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anas1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@Anas1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Anas1)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2020, 6:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-wildcard-search-with-special-characters-issue/254068/1 "2020-11-02T18:20:59Z")
When searching using a wildcard words, i have an unexpected behavior. I'm working on ES 5.6.8. **To reproduce the issue:** (Test with Kibana) **- create the index :** ```auto PUT my-index-00001 { "mappings": { "test": { "properties": { "name1": { "type": "keyword", "fields": { "analyzed": { "type" : "text", "analyzer": "french_analyzer" } } } } } }, "settings": { "analysis": { "analyzer": { "path_analyzer": { "tokenizer": "path_tokenizer" }, "french_analyzer": { "type": "custom", "tokenizer": "standard", "filter": ["lowercase", "asciifolding"] } }, "tokenizer": { "path_tokenizer": { "type": "path_hierarchy", "delimiter": "/" } }, "normalizer": { "lowercase_normalizer": { "type": "custom", "char_filter": [], "filter": ["lowercase"] } } } } } ``` **- Insert test data:** ```auto POST my-index-00001/test { "name1" : "WT1" } POST my-index-00001/test { "name1" : "testWT1" } POST my-index-00001/test { "name1" : "WT1test" } ``` **- Make the search:** ```auto GET my-index-00001/test/_search { "query": { "query_string": { "query": "WT\\:*", "fields": ["name1.analyzed"], "default_operator": "AND", "analyze_wildcard": true } } } ``` As expected, this search returns both results `["name1": "WT:1test", "name1": "WT:1"]` but the issue is with a prefix wildcard as follow: ```auto GET my-index-00001/test/_search { "query": { "query_string": { "query": "*WT\\:", "fields": ["name1.analyzed"], "default_operator": "AND", "analyze_wildcard": true } } } ``` same issue with query "_WT\:_". this search does not return any result. Expected result: documents with `["name1": "WT:1test", "name1": "WT:1", "name1": "testWT:1"]` ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 3:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-wildcard-search-with-special-characters-issue/254068/2 "2020-11-03T15:51:00Z")
I updated your demo script to 7.9.3. 5.x is not supported anymore. I also edited the example to fix it with the right values and simplify a bit the mapping to remove non needed fields. ```auto DELETE my-index-00001 PUT my-index-00001 { "mappings": { "properties": { "name1": { "type": "text", "analyzer": "french_analyzer" } } }, "settings": { "analysis": { "analyzer": { "french_analyzer": { "type": "custom", "tokenizer": "standard", "filter": [ "lowercase", "asciifolding" ] } } } } } POST my-index-00001/_doc { "name1" : "WT:1" } POST my-index-00001/_doc { "name1" : "testWT:1" } POST my-index-00001/_doc { "name1" : "WT:1test" } GET my-index-00001/_search { "query": { "query_string": { "query": "WT\\:*", "fields": ["name1"], "default_operator": "AND", "analyze_wildcard": true } } } GET my-index-00001/_search { "query": { "query_string": { "query": "*WT\\:", "fields": ["name1"], "default_operator": "AND", "analyze_wildcard": true } } } ``` Now, back to your question. Here is how your documents are indexed behind the scene: ```auto POST my-index-00001/_analyze { "field": "name1", "text": ["WT:1", "testWT:1", "WT:1test"] } ``` It gives: ```auto { "tokens" : [ { "token" : "wt", "start_offset" : 0, "end_offset" : 2, "type" : "", "position" : 0 }, { "token" : "1", "start_offset" : 3, "end_offset" : 4, "type" : "", "position" : 1 }, { "token" : "testwt", "start_offset" : 5, "end_offset" : 11, "type" : "", "position" : 102 }, { "token" : "1", "start_offset" : 12, "end_offset" : 13, "type" : "", "position" : 103 }, { "token" : "wt", "start_offset" : 14, "end_offset" : 16, "type" : "", "position" : 204 }, { "token" : "1test", "start_offset" : 17, "end_offset" : 22, "type" : "", "position" : 205 } ] } ``` That's probably not what you want. Instead you should use a keyword data type when searching with wildcards. Which I don't recommend anyway as [per documentation](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-wildcard-query.html): > Avoid beginning patterns with `*` or `?` . This can increase the iterations needed to find matching terms and slow search performance. But, here the problem is something else. You should use a query like: ```auto GET my-index-00001/_search { "query": { "match": { "name1": "WT\\:*" } } } GET my-index-00001/_search { "query": { "match": { "name1": "*WT\\:" } } } ``` Hope this helps. ---
**Author:** ![Anas1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@Anas1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Anas1)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2020, 9:38am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-wildcard-search-with-special-characters-issue/254068/3 "2020-11-04T09:38:56Z")
> [@dadoonet](#): > > recommend Thank you for your response, but i think that the issue i encounter is about a prefix wildcard as in ```auto GET my-index-00001/_search { "query": { "match": { "name1": "*WT*" } } } ``` I expected to find with this search term those results : ["WT:1", "testWT:1", "WT:1test"] but actually only two of them are returned: ["WT:1", "WT:1test"] and not "testWT:1", the prefix wildcard must not return all three results?! Thank you in advance ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2020, 10:15am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-wildcard-search-with-special-characters-issue/254068/4 "2020-11-04T10:15:10Z")
Try this one: ```auto GET my-index-00001/_search { "query": { "wildcard": { "name1": "*WT*" } } } ``` But again, keep in mind that this is not efficient if you are looking for fast response times. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 10:15am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/query-string-wildcard-search-with-special-characters-issue/254068/5 "2020-12-02T10:15:13Z")
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