# Should clause gives different weight to each term

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/should-clause-gives-different-weight-to-each-term/143282>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [August 7, 2018, 8:28am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/should-clause-gives-different-weight-to-each-term/143282 "2018-08-07T08:28:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![zivari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zivari](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/zivari)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 8:28am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/should-clause-gives-different-weight-to-each-term/143282/1 "2018-08-07T08:28:58Z")

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Hey,

Iv been having a hard time figuring out why different terms on my should clause has different "weight" without me stating it explicitly, and how can i avoid it.

I have this should clause in my query:

:should=\>  
[{:term=\>{:styles=\>{:value=\>" **Raw**", :boost=\>2}}},  
{:term=\>{:styles=\>{:value=\>" **Intimate**", :boost=\>2}}},  
{:term=\>{:styles=\>{:value=\>" **Minimalist**", :boost=\>2}}},  
{:term=\>{:features=\>{:value=\>" **Graffiti**", :boost=\>2}}}]}},

my expectation from this is that if a document matches all 4 terms, it will score the highest,  
Than if it matches 3 terms , it will score higher the documents that match 2 terms, and so on.

What really happens is:

1. document that match all 4 terms get the highest score. - GOOD
2. the "features" term is "stronger" than the "styles" term, because i get these scores for the following documents:

:features=\>  
["Exposed Brick", "High Ceiling", "Skylight", "Large Windows", "Library", "Dining Table", "Modern Bathroom", "Bathtub", "Concrete", "Wood Floors", "Art",  
"Garden", "Plants", " **Graffiti**", "Sound-proof", "Deck/Patio", "Roof", "Bar",  
"View", "Screening Room", "Open Kitchen", "Private Entrance"],  
:styles=\>["Industrial", " **Intimate**"],  
:score=\> **7.3219934** },

VS

:features=\>  
["Columns", "Deck/Patio", "Cyc", "Dining Table", "High Ceiling", "Open Kitchen", "Plants", "Private Entrance", "Roof", "White Space", "Breakout rooms", "Empty", "Large Windows", "Screening Room", "Sound-proof", "View", "Concrete"],  
:styles=\>  
["Classic", " **Intimate**", "Luxurious", " **Minimalist**", "Modern", " **Raw**", "Whimsical",  
"Industrial"],  
:score=\> **6.400804** },

notice how the last document matches 3 terms, but has lower score than the first document that matched 2 terms.

So my questions are:

1. Can you please explain how can I achieve the following - the more terms met - the higher the score, with each term being equal in weight to the other ( that is : between different fields and in the same field context aswell. - all must have the same weight)

2. another wierd case is - lets compare two documents :  
doc1: styles: ["Raw", "Intimate"], score: 3.51232  
doc2: styles: ["Raw", "Minimlist"], score: 3.21045

Why those 2 docs get different scores even though they meet the same amount of should-term caulses, and what can i do to make them return the same score?

PS. the boost of 2 that i added was just for testing, the same scenario happens with or without custom boosting

Appreciate your help,

Thanks.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zivari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zivari](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/zivari)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 7:13am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/should-clause-gives-different-weight-to-each-term/143282/2 "2018-08-09T07:13:38Z")

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So, i was able to figure it out myself. The reason for the different scoring is [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/relevance-intro.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/relevance-intro.html)

and the solution was changing the mapping of the fields that will affect the score, and sending the similarity: "boolean" paramater with them. that will cause each term that is met to give a score of 1 to the document, which means all scoring terms will have same weight on the score.  
[https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.3/similarity.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/6.3/similarity.html)

hope that helps 🙂

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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:** [September 6, 2018, 7:13am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/should-clause-gives-different-weight-to-each-term/143282/3 "2018-09-06T07:13:50Z")

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