# Search for \* in data

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/search-for-in-data/265413>\
**Category:** Kibana\
**Tags:** kql-kibana-query-language\
**Created:** [February 24, 2021, 9:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/search-for-in-data/265413 "2021-02-24T21:24:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jfromm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@jfromm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jfromm)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2021, 9:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/search-for-in-data/265413/1 "2021-02-24T21:24:14Z")

</div>

I have an application where in dictated results, the string "\*\*\*" is put in to indicate that a dictated word can not be understood. I have a text field containing the output of the dictation, and when I look at the string I see the \*\*\* in the data.

However, I have been unable to search/filter for the string \*\*\* in the discover tool or with TSVB.

If I use \*\*\* as a filter string, it gets treated as three wildcards and anything with more than 3 tokens is returned (didn't spend a lot of time on that, so maybe I am not interpreting the results correctly)  
If I use quotes `"***",` I get no results.  
If I use backslash escaping `\*\*\*` I get no results.  
If I use slash escaping `/*/*/*` I get no results.

Is this an issue with the analyzer used in processing the field? Or is it a problem getting the wildcard character escaped?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stephenb](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/stephenb/32/40856_2.png) [@stephenb](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/stephenb)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2021, 7:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/search-for-in-data/265413/2 "2021-02-25T19:19:45Z")

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Hi @jfromm

Yup the standard analyzer is eating the "\*\*\*".

Assuming this is a line of text or something take a look at these

```
POST _analyze
{
  "text": "hello *** friend"
}

POST _analyze
{
  "analyzer": "whitespace",
  "text": "hello *** friend"
}

```

then try

```
PUT my-new-idx/
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "dictated_text": {
        "type": "text",
        "analyzer": "whitespace"
      }
    }
  }
}

POST my-new-idx/_doc
{
  "dictated_text" : "hello Mr *** thank you for coming to the proceeding"
}

POST my-new-idx/_search
{
  "query": {
    "match": {
      "dictated_text": "***"
    }
  }
}

```

This may not fix all your issues ... but should be a start

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stephenb](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/stephenb/32/40856_2.png) [@stephenb](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/stephenb)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2021, 8:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/search-for-in-data/265413/3 "2021-02-25T20:37:04Z")

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BTW I noticed you tagged KQL so I tried it .. worked too! 🙂

 ![Screen Shot 2021-02-25 at 12.36.00 PM](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/a/8/a868e66dfc57eafb51f890dbaa708aeee58d8174.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jfromm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@jfromm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jfromm)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2021, 8:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/search-for-in-data/265413/4 "2021-02-25T20:43:20Z")

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Thanks for the help Stephen. Off to configure the analyzer.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2021, 8:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/search-for-in-data/265413/5 "2021-03-25T20:43:39Z")

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