Search multiple words using wildcard query

Elastic Stack Elasticsearch
1

I have documents indexed to elastic search in the following structure -

[{ "firstname" : "john",  "lastname" : "cena" } , { "firstname" : "peter",  "lastname" : "parker" }]

I am trying to use a bool query that contains two should clauses - both are wildcard queries to search for people with their firstname/lastname -

new WildCardQuery
{
     "Field" : "firstname", 
     "Value": enteredTextByUserInSearchBar + "*"
},
new WildCardQuery
{
     "Field" : "lastname", 
     "Value": enteredTextByUserInSearchBar + "*"
}

Issue
When i try and search - pete, my query uses pete* as the value part of the wildcard query and returns me the result peter parker. Same is the case when i search park and i get peter parker as result.

but when the user entered text contains multiple words like - peter parker, i dont get any search results. Maybe because the query that gets executed on es uses the value - peter parker* (as per how i have defined the value part in the wildcard query above)

Any suggestions how to solve this or any alternatives to using wildcard query here ? I want to be able to search people on the basis of their firstnames/lastnames and also have a partial match such that if i enter peter park or pet parker or pet park, i should get the results peter parker.

2

Wildcard queries can be slow.

I'd recommend using another way.

You can combine different kind of techniques to propose to your user the most relevant documents first. Have a look at:

This might give you an idea.

BTW for partial matching, you can use a edge ngram based analyzer.

3

In order to use the edge ngram based analyzer, my match query takes in a property called analyzer but since it accepts a string value, are you aware of what is the identifier for edge ngram analyzer that i should supply here -

new MatchQuery()
{
   Field = "firstname",
   Query = "Pete Park",
   Boot = 2.0,
  Analyzer = ""  ???????
}
4

@dadoonet Can you please help me with how to specify edge ngram based analyzer in a match query as asked in the previous reply.
I am unable to find the identifier for edge ngram based analyzer that i can assign to the analyser property of match query

5

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6

You have some examples available in the documentation.

Basically you need to build your own analyzer with a edge ngram token filter and use this custom analyzer at index time (in the mapping as the analyzer for your field). I'd recommend setting a search_analyzer in the mapping as well for the same field and set it to simple.

I'd also recommend that you use the _analyze API to understand what elasticsearch is going to do at index time and at search time.

I'd not use Analyzer here.

7

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