# Sort by position / best match
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sort-by-position-best-match/106232
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [November 2, 2017, 6:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sort-by-position-best-match/106232 "2017-11-02T18:08:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jakobdo](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jakobdo)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2017, 6:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sort-by-position-best-match/106232/1 "2017-11-02T18:08:29Z")
Hello,
i'm searching against a elacsticsearch server and i am wondering if i can control the score of a result?
Today i do a search like:
```
query = {
'query': {
'multi_match': {
'query': "Foo Bar Inc",
'fields': ["name", "nickname"],
}
}
}
```
And if i have 3 records like:
1. Bar and Foo Inc
2. Bar Foo Ltd
3. Foo Bar Inc
I would like to have number 3. with the highest score, how can i modify the search to do that?
Now 1 and 3 have the same score
---
### Author:  [@shanec](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/shanec)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2017, 10:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sort-by-position-best-match/106232/2 "2017-11-02T22:57:19Z")
The question you ask is deceivingly complicated.
Elasticsearch uses statistics to give a score and a variety of things, both in terms of what you index and how you search, will adjust the score. I'd really recommend you read [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/search-in-depth.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/search-in-depth.html) and the sub-sections there so you understand what Elasticsearch is doing so you can really control it. You likely want something like [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/proximity-relevance.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/proximity-relevance.html) where it has one block that matches terms and another block that attempts to boost an exact phrase match.
---
### Author:  [@jakobdo](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jakobdo)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2017, 3:11pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sort-by-position-best-match/106232/3 "2017-11-03T15:11:26Z")
Is it possible to combine my search from above and match\_phrase ?
So i both have the search where it searches for all terms, but also a match\_phrase and then combine the score of the two results ?
---
### Author:  [@jakobdo](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jakobdo)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2017, 11:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sort-by-position-best-match/106232/4 "2017-11-04T11:57:52Z")
And how can i ensure that my "search" will only return exact match?
Lets say i search for:
Foo Bar Inc
And i have this in my data:
Foo Bar Inc
Hmm Foo Bar Inc
Foo Bar Inc International
etc...
I will make a search like this in sql:
where name = "Foo Bar Inc"
---
### Author:  [@shanec](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/shanec)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2017, 3:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sort-by-position-best-match/106232/5 "2017-11-04T15:08:00Z")
If you want to match a sub-phrase within a larger set of text, you'll want to use the [text](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/text.html) field type and use the [match\_phrase](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-match-query-phrase.html) query.
If you want an exact match of the field value, you'll want to use the [keyword](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/keyword.html) field type and use a [match](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-match-query.html) query.
If you want both to come back but have exact matches be preferred, you can use a [bool](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-bool-query.html) query with an exact phrase or match on keywords in the "should" clause.
The "search in depth" and "proximity-relevance" pages walk through this (and the latter actually gives an example that's very close to what you've asked)
---
### Author:  [@jakobdo](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jakobdo)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2017, 12:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sort-by-position-best-match/106232/6 "2017-11-29T12:12:09Z")
I have looked into a ES course, so i needed to learn a bit more about the topic.. 🙂
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2017, 12:13pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sort-by-position-best-match/106232/7 "2017-12-27T12:13:01Z")
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