# Question about boost and scoring **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [April 27, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-about-boost-and-scoring/7497 "2012-04-27T16:57:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Evgeniy\_Galkin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/evgeniy_galkin/32/2741_2.png) [@Evgeniy\_Galkin](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Evgeniy_Galkin)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-about-boost-and-scoring/7497/1 "2012-04-27T16:57:56Z")
Hello. I have the next problem. I have n types of objects with some text fields in each. I want to give some priorities to these fields. So in search results i should see at first only matches from the most prior field, then from the next and so on. Example: Let's imagine we have 2 types: type\_a and type\_b. We have fields type\_a.f1, type\_a.f2 and type\_b.f1. So I want to see in my search results at first only matches from type\_a.f1, next from type\_a.f2 and at last from the type\_b.f1. I've experimented with boost and discovered the next things. 1. Usualy \_score value for the document without boosting is between 0.1 and 10. 2. As far as I understand, \_score of boosted document is boost \* \_score. 3. If I'm right in my 2 previous statements, the boost value for more prior document should be at least 100 times more than for less prior one to guarantee priority sorting. It means that I should have boost = 1 for type\_b.f1 (and its score should be between 0.1 and 10), boost = 100 for type\_a.f2 (and score between 10 and 1000) and boost = 10000 for type\_a.f1 (score between 1000 and 100000). But if I have 4 types with 4 fields in each, boost value for the most prior field should be 10^15. Is it normal or there is another way to order matches by the priority of the type and field? What is the numeric range of boost value? P.S. Yes, I can make 4 or 16 queries instead of one (one query per field), but it's not convenient for me because I show all results as a single page with pagination (using "size" and "from" API parameters) P.S. 2. Sorry for my bad English, I hope that you understand me. ---
**Author:** ![kimchy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/kimchy/32/44952_2.png) [@kimchy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kimchy)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-about-boost-and-scoring/7497/2 "2012-04-29T16:58:19Z")
Do you set boosting while indexing? Its a bit problematic since it looses precision, maybe you can boost while querying? On Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 7:57 PM, Evgeniy Galkin [evgeniy@parkflyer.ru](mailto:evgeniy@parkflyer.ru)wrote: > Hello. > I have the next problem. > I have n types of objects with some text fields in each. > I want to give some priorities to these fields. So in search results i > should see at first only matches from the most prior field, then from > the next and so on. > > Example: > Let's imagine we have 2 types: type\_a and type\_b. We have fields > type\_a.f1, type\_a.f2 and type\_b.f1. > So I want to see in my search results at first only matches from > type\_a.f1, next from type\_a.f2 and at last from the type\_b.f1. > > I've experimented with boost and discovered the next things. > > 1. Usualy \_score value for the document without boosting is between > 0.1 and 10. > 2. As far as I understand, \_score of boosted document is boost \* > \_score. > 3. If I'm right in my 2 previous statements, the boost value for more > prior document should be at least 100 times more than for less prior > one to guarantee priority sorting. It means that I should have boost = > 1 for type\_b.f1 (and its score should be between 0.1 and 10), boost = > 100 for type\_a.f2 (and score between 10 and 1000) and boost = 10000 > for type\_a.f1 (score between 1000 and 100000). > But if I have 4 types with 4 fields in each, boost value for the most > prior field should be 10^15. > > Is it normal or there is another way to order matches by the priority > of the type and field? What is the numeric range of boost value? > > P.S. Yes, I can make 4 or 16 queries instead of one (one query per > field), but it's not convenient for me because I show all results as a > single page with pagination (using "size" and "from" API parameters) > > P.S. 2. Sorry for my bad English, I hope that you understand me. ---
**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, 3:30am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-about-boost-and-scoring/7497/3 "2017-07-06T03:30:39Z")