# Searching from a pre-defined list

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/searching-from-a-pre-defined-list/122977>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [March 7, 2018, 10:44pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/searching-from-a-pre-defined-list/122977 "2018-03-07T22:44:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![javacoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@javacoffee](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/javacoffee)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2018, 10:44pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/searching-from-a-pre-defined-list/122977/1 "2018-03-07T22:44:58Z")

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Hi, I am not a developer but need to ask this question so I can tell developer that this is feasible or not. I was told that this can not be done in elastic search.

I have a field called 'School' which is an auto-complete field on UI. Database has let's say about 20,000 schools for this field. As I start typing 'Univ', I am expecting to see results such as 'University of Arizona' or anything that starts with 'University'. I am not getting expected results and the developer is saying nothing can be done about it. I get results like 'American School University of blah blah', 'Xamine University Antenna blah blah..'.

Is it not possible to get a better matches results when database does have values such as 'University of Virgina', and many more like that.

I am hoping I don't need to type the entire string 'University of' to better results.

Please advise if it is doable or not. Thanks!

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2018, 10:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/searching-from-a-pre-defined-list/122977/2 "2018-04-04T22:45:39Z")

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Closed on April 4, 2018, 10:45pm UTC

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