# SQL like in elastic

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sql-like-in-elastic/169410>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [February 21, 2019, 12:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sql-like-in-elastic/169410 "2019-02-21T12:45:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Suren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@Suren](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Suren)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 12:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sql-like-in-elastic/169410/1 "2019-02-21T12:45:10Z")

</div>

Is it possible to search in elastic like "SQL LIKE" works ?? I have tried to search with wildcard but it is not working if there are spaces in word. Can I somehow adjust the wildcard usage to that case?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 1:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sql-like-in-elastic/169410/2 "2019-02-21T13:05:40Z")

</div>

It's not recommended but if you want it do that against a keyword field data type or don't analyze the field.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Suren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@Suren](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Suren)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 1:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sql-like-in-elastic/169410/3 "2019-02-21T13:38:32Z")

</div>

i have tried this way

```
    DELETE wildcardtest

    PUT /wildcardtest
    {
      "mappings": {
        "doc": {
          "properties": {
            "name": {
              "type": "keyword"
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
    PUT wildcardtest/doc/1
    {
      "name": "Armenian Dram"
    }
    PUT wildcardtest/doc/2
    {
      "name": "US Dollar"
    }

    GET wildcardtest/_search
    {
       "query": {
        "wildcard": {
          "name": "*ian dram*"
        }
      }
    }

```

but i don't get any result

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 3:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sql-like-in-elastic/169410/4 "2019-02-21T15:19:48Z")

</div>

It's because your text is not analyzed.

This one works:

```auto
GET wildcardtest/_search
{
   "query": {
    "wildcard": {
      "name": "*ian Dram*"
    }
  }
}

```

If you **really** want to do that, you need may be to lowercase the content by using a `lowercase` normalizer or change the type to `text` and use a `simple` analyzer.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Suren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@Suren](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Suren)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 6:30am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sql-like-in-elastic/169410/5 "2019-02-22T06:30:31Z")

</div>

> [@dadoonet](#):
>
> lowercas

if i change type to text and also use lowercase normalizer wildcard will not work with space ... okey if it's not recommended use wildcard with spaces how can i get "SQL like" effect with elastic

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 7:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sql-like-in-elastic/169410/6 "2019-02-22T07:34:01Z")

</div>

May be explain the use case so we can help to find a better approach?

By use case I mean: what type of documents, what are your users going to enter in the search bar, ...

---

<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 22, 2019, 7:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sql-like-in-elastic/169410/7 "2019-03-22T07:34:05Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.