# Score of a Query **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [July 27, 2011, 4:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/score-of-a-query/4978 "2011-07-27T16:38:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davrob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d78d45/32.png) [@davrob](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/davrob)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 4:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/score-of-a-query/4978/1 "2011-07-27T16:38:12Z")
Hi, Is there anyway I can ask for the score of each document returned to be added to the results in a query, I'm finding it hard to debug the ordering of my results. Best Regards, David. ---
**Author:** ![Benjamin\_Deveze](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/benjamin_deveze/32/1577_2.png) [@Benjamin\_Deveze](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Benjamin_Deveze)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 4:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/score-of-a-query/4978/2 "2011-07-27T16:49:58Z")
You should use the explain parameter ( [http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/api/search/explain.html](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/api/search/explain.html)). This will display score for each result and a detailed explanation of the score computation. ---
**Author:** ![ppearcy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ppearcy/32/980_2.png) [@ppearcy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ppearcy)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/score-of-a-query/4978/3 "2011-07-27T16:51:01Z")
Unless I am misunderstanding the question, this comes back in the result JSON as: hits.hits[n].\_score If relevancy based scoring isn't used, this comes back as null. On Jul 27, 10:38 am, davrob2 [davirobe...@gmail.com](mailto:davirobe...@gmail.com) wrote: > Hi, > > Is there anyway I can ask for the score of each document returned to > be added to the results in a query, I'm finding it hard to debug the > ordering of my results. > > Best Regards, > > David. ---
**Author:** ![Clinton\_Gormley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@Clinton\_Gormley](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Clinton_Gormley)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 4:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/score-of-a-query/4978/4 "2011-07-27T16:52:58Z")
Hi David > Is there anyway I can ask for the score of each document returned to > be added to the results in a query, I'm finding it hard to debug the > ordering of my results. It is added to each result, unless you're sorting by something other than \_score clint ---
**Author:** ![Benjamin\_Deveze](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/benjamin_deveze/32/1577_2.png) [@Benjamin\_Deveze](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Benjamin_Deveze)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 5:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/score-of-a-query/4978/5 "2011-07-27T17:03:20Z")
On a side note if you are sorting by something other than \_score you should have a look to the track\_scores parameter. ---
**Author:** ![davrob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d78d45/32.png) [@davrob](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/davrob)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 11:51am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/score-of-a-query/4978/6 "2011-08-01T11:51:18Z")
Hi Guys, Thanks for your answers. This is what I have managed to get done so far: i) The equivalent of setting explain: true in the url params is to setExplain(true) on the SearchRequestIndexBuilder ii) When I set explain true, this is a sample of what I get from SearchHit.explanation().toString(): 1.2891362 = weight(listIds:6836 in 796), product of: 0.99999994 = queryWeight(listIds:6836), product of: 10.31309 = idf(docFreq=6, maxDocs=77575) 0.09696414 = queryNorm 1.2891363 = fieldWeight(listIds:6836 in 796), product of: 1.0 = tf(termFreq(listIds:6836)=1) 10.31309 = idf(docFreq=6, maxDocs=77575) 0.125 = fieldNorm(field=listIds, doc=796) A guide of what the above means would be really useful. i.e. What is "idf" / doc frequency referring to? What is "queryNorm", "fieldWeight", "tf"/term frequency and "fieldNorm"? iii) Whether I set explain(true) or not score() method on SearchHit always return NaN: for (SearchHit hit : queryResponse.getHits()){ Map\ source = hit.getSource(); source.put("score", hit.score()); ... } I think this is fine for me, to set explain(true) when I need to debug my results. cheers, David. On Jul 27, 6:03 pm, Benjamin Devèze [benjamin.dev...@gmail.com](mailto:benjamin.dev...@gmail.com) wrote: > On a side note if you are sorting by something other than \_score you should > have a look to the track\_scores parameter. ---
**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:** [August 1, 2011, 8:18pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/score-of-a-query/4978/7 "2011-08-01T20:18:40Z")
You might not be getting the score itself because you are sorting on a field? If you still want the score (without running explain, which is expensive), then you can set track scores to true ( [Elasticsearch Platform — Find real-time answers at scale | Elastic](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/api/search/sort.html)), in the Java API, you simply set SearchRequestBuilder#setTrackScores in order to get scores back even though you are not sorting on them. On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 2:51 PM, davrob2 [daviroberts@gmail.com](mailto:daviroberts@gmail.com) wrote: > Hi Guys, > > Thanks for your answers. This is what I have managed to get done so > far: > > i) The equivalent of setting explain: true in the url params is to > setExplain(true) on the SearchRequestIndexBuilder > > ii) When I set explain true, this is a sample of what I get from > SearchHit.explanation().toString(): > > 1.2891362 = weight(listIds:6836 in 796), product of: > 0.99999994 = queryWeight(listIds:6836), product of: > 10.31309 = idf(docFreq=6, maxDocs=77575) > 0.09696414 = queryNorm > 1.2891363 = fieldWeight(listIds:6836 in 796), product of: > 1.0 = tf(termFreq(listIds:6836)=1) > 10.31309 = idf(docFreq=6, maxDocs=77575) > 0.125 = fieldNorm(field=listIds, doc=796) > > A guide of what the above means would be really useful. > > i.e. What is "idf" / doc frequency referring to? > What is "queryNorm", "fieldWeight", "tf"/term frequency and > "fieldNorm"? > > iii) Whether I set explain(true) or not score() method on SearchHit > always return NaN: > > for (SearchHit hit : queryResponse.getHits()){ > Map\ source = hit.getSource(); > source.put("score", hit.score()); > ... > } > > I think this is fine for me, to set explain(true) when I need to debug > my results. > > cheers, > > David. > > On Jul 27, 6:03 pm, Benjamin Devèze [benjamin.dev...@gmail.com](mailto:benjamin.dev...@gmail.com) wrote: > > > On a side note if you are sorting by something other than \_score you > > should > > have a look to the track\_scores parameter. ---
**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, 3:58am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/score-of-a-query/4978/8 "2017-07-06T03:58:39Z")