Results have a similar score, but the number of fields matched varies

Elastic Stack Elasticsearch
1

To simplify:

PUT /test/vendors/1
{
  "type": "doctor",
  "name": "Ron",
  "place": "Boston"  
}

PUT /test/vendors/2
{
  "type": "doctor",
  "name": "Tom",
  "place": "Boston"  

}

PUT /test/vendors/3
{
  "type": "doctor",
  "name": "Jack",
  "place": "San Fran"  

}

then I search...

GET /test/_search
{
  "query": {
    "multi_match" : {
      "query":    "doctor in Boston", 
      "fields": [ "type", "place" ] 
    }
  }
}

To simplify:

PUT /test/vendors/1
{
  "type": "doctor",
  "name": "Ron",
  "place": "Boston"  
}

PUT /test/vendors/2
{
  "type": "doctor",
  "name": "Tom",
  "place": "Boston"  

}

PUT /test/vendors/3
{
  "type": "doctor",
  "name": "Jack",
  "place": "San Fran"  

}

Then search:

GET /test/_search
{
  "query": {
    "multi_match" : {
      "query":    "doctor in Boston", 
      "fields": [ "type", "place" ] 
    }
  }
}

I understand why I get Jack who works in San Fran -- it's because he's a doctor too. However, I can't figure out why the match score is the SAME for him. The other two were matched with the place too, weren't they? why aren't Ron and Tom scored higher?

{
  "took": 11,
  "timed_out": false,
  "_shards": {
    "total": 5,
    "successful": 5,
    "skipped": 0,
    "failed": 0
  },
  "hits": {
    "total": 3,
    "max_score": 0.9245277,
    "hits": [
      {
        "_index": "test",
        "_type": "vendors",
        "_id": "2",
        "_score": 0.9245277,
        "_source": {
          "type": "doctor",
          "name": "Tom",
          "place": "Boston"
        }
      },
      {
        "_index": "test",
        "_type": "vendors",
        "_id": "1",
        "_score": 0.9245277,
        "_source": {
          "type": "doctor",
          "name": "Ron",
          "place": "Boston"
        }
      },
      {
        "_index": "test",
        "_type": "vendors",
        "_id": "3",
        "_score": 0.9245277,
        "_source": {
          "type": "doctor",
          "name": "Jack",
          "place": "San Fran"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Is there a way to force it to score less when less search keywords are found? Also, If I'n going to wrong way about this kind of search and there's a better pattern/way to do it -- I'd appreciate to be pointed in the right direction.

2

There are a few things going on here. One of those things is that you're going with the default of 5 shards. With a small dataset like this (3 documents), this will distort the scoring. Scoring is done at the shard-level, and having 3 documents distributed over 5 shards will cause scoring to be inconsistent from one shard to another. I would recommend creating the index with only one shard before indexing the documents:

PUT test
{
  "settings": {
    "number_of_shards": 1
  }
}

This will already partially solve the issue, as the two doctors from Boston will now rank highest.

There is another thing going on though. The default score calculation mechanism of a multi_match query is of the so called "best_fields" type. That means Elasticsearch will calculate a score for each of the individual fields "type" and "place", and whichever score is the highest will be the overall score of a document.

You can see how the score is calculated by adding "explain": true to a search request:

GET /test/_search
{
  "explain": true, 
  "query": {
    "multi_match" : {
      "query":    "doctor in Boston", 
      "fields": [ "type", "place" ] 
    }
  }
}

Now, you'll be able to see the detailed breakdown of each document's score.

You can change the way the score is calculated from "best_fields" into "most_fields". Now, the more fields match your query, the higher the score is going to be (Elasticsearch will sum all of the individual scores of each of the fields).

GET /test/_search
{
  "query": {
    "multi_match" : {
      "query":    "doctor in Boston", 
      "fields": [ "type", "place" ],
      "type": "most_fields"
    }
  }
}

This is probably what you will want to do.

3

"best_fields" did the job. I appreciate you taking the time to explain about this option and the shards. Thanks!