# Question Symbol filtering and machine learning error; startOffset must be non-negative, and endOffset must be \>= startOffset; got startOffset=14,endOffset=13

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-symbol-filtering-and-machine-learning-error-startoffset-must-be-non-negative-and-endoffset-must-be-startoffset-got-startoffset-14-endoffset-13/358716>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** elastic-stack-machine-learning\
**Created:** [May 3, 2024, 2:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-symbol-filtering-and-machine-learning-error-startoffset-must-be-non-negative-and-endoffset-must-be-startoffset-got-startoffset-14-endoffset-13/358716 "2024-05-03T14:06:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chenko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/258eb7/32.png) [@Chenko](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Chenko)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 2:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-symbol-filtering-and-machine-learning-error-startoffset-must-be-non-negative-and-endoffset-must-be-startoffset-got-startoffset-14-endoffset-13/358716/1 "2024-05-03T14:06:29Z")

</div>

Hi!

I have the following error:

```auto
{
  "error": {
    "root_cause": [
      {
        "type": "illegal_argument_exception",
        "reason": "startOffset must be non-negative, and endOffset must be >= startOffset; got startOffset=14,endOffset=13"
      }
    ],
    "type": "illegal_argument_exception",
    "reason": "startOffset must be non-negative, and endOffset must be >= startOffset; got startOffset=14,endOffset=13"
  },
  "status": 400
}

```

when running the following call:

```auto
POST /_ml/trained_models/.multilingual-e5-small_linux-x86_64/_infer
{
  "docs": {
    "text_field": "bla bla bla ⅓ bla bla bla"
  }
}

```

I figured out the error came because of the '⅓' symbol.  
Is there any way in my pipeline that I can filter such symbols out? so only the characters the model understand go through?

I am using Elastic Cloud V8.13.3 for this test.

I was originally using the `_update_by_query` api to update my index when coming across this error. Some feedback from me; make it easier to see that this error was coming from the ML job/ pipeline. Took me a bit to figure out it was because of the symbol.

Kind regards,  
Chenko