# Text Search with more preference to prefix matches **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [January 17, 2013, 10:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/text-search-with-more-preference-to-prefix-matches/10388 "2013-01-17T10:24:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![0xff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/0/5fc32e/32.png) [@0xff](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/0xff)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 10:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/text-search-with-more-preference-to-prefix-matches/10388/1 "2013-01-17T10:24:37Z")
Started to work on elasticsearch recently and it has been an interesting couple of months. I have Indexed few documents in elasticsearch. Each document has got fields like username, biography, post, interests etc. I want to do a text search for 'Smith' in all the indexed fields with the field 'username' starting with Smith ranking higher than the partial match on the 'username' field and on other fields like post, interests etc. I am using grails and I have given higher boost for username but I want the document with username 'Smith' ranked higher than the document with username 'Joe Smith' or other fields having prefix or partial matches. How do i approach this issue? Thanks. -- ---
**Author:** ![Igor\_Motov](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/igor_motov/32/45193_2.png) [@Igor\_Motov](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Igor_Motov)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 5:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/text-search-with-more-preference-to-prefix-matches/10388/2 "2013-01-18T17:35:41Z")
You should get this automatically unless you set omit\_norms to true in your mappings. In general, if you want to boost a certain types of matches without affecting the set of results that you are getting back, you can use Custom Filters Score Query[http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/query-dsl/custom-filters-score-query.html](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/query-dsl/custom-filters-score-query.html) . On Thursday, January 17, 2013 5:24:37 AM UTC-5, Sara wrote: > Started to work on elasticsearch recently and it has been an interesting > couple of months. > > I have Indexed few documents in elasticsearch. Each document has got > fields like username, biography, post, interests etc. I want to do a text > search for 'Smith' in all the indexed fields with the field 'username' > starting with Smith ranking higher than the partial match on the 'username' > field and on other fields like post, interests etc. > > I am using grails and I have given higher boost for username but I want > the document with username 'Smith' ranked higher than the document with > username 'Joe Smith' or other fields having prefix or partial matches. How > do i approach this issue? Thanks. -- ---
**Author:** ![Clinton\_Gormley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@Clinton\_Gormley](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Clinton_Gormley)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 5:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/text-search-with-more-preference-to-prefix-matches/10388/3 "2013-01-18T17:38:04Z")
On Fri, 2013-01-18 at 09:35 -0800, Igor Motov wrote: > You should get this automatically unless you set omit\_norms to true in > your mappings. Unfortunately, the norm is stored in a single byte, and so loses granularity when dealing with very short strings like a username. The difference between "smith" and "john smith" is too small for norms to make a difference clint > In general, if you want to boost a certain types of matches without > affecting the set of results that you are getting back, you can use > Custom Filters Score Query. > > On Thursday, January 17, 2013 5:24:37 AM UTC-5, Sara wrote: > Started to work on elasticsearch recently and it has been an > interesting couple of months. > > ``` > I have Indexed few documents in elasticsearch. Each document > has got fields like username, biography, post, interests etc. > I want to do a text search for 'Smith' in all the indexed > fields with the field 'username' starting with Smith ranking > higher than the partial match on the 'username' field and on > other fields like post, interests etc. > > > I am using grails and I have given higher boost for username > but I want the document with username 'Smith' ranked higher > than the document with username 'Joe Smith' or other fields > having prefix or partial matches. How do i approach this > issue? Thanks. > > ``` > > -- -- ---
**Author:** ![Igor\_Motov](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/igor_motov/32/45193_2.png) [@Igor\_Motov](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Igor_Motov)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 6:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/text-search-with-more-preference-to-prefix-matches/10388/4 "2013-01-18T18:46:48Z")
Yes, clint is right here, if you have very large index time boost set for this field, it can really skew the norms. So, you it might be also useful to switch to query time boosting. On Friday, January 18, 2013 12:38:04 PM UTC-5, Clinton Gormley wrote: > On Fri, 2013-01-18 at 09:35 -0800, Igor Motov wrote: > > > You should get this automatically unless you set omit\_norms to true in > > your mappings. > > Unfortunately, the norm is stored in a single byte, and so loses > granularity when dealing with very short strings like a username. The > difference between "smith" and "john smith" is too small for norms to > make a difference > > clint > > > In general, if you want to boost a certain types of matches without > > affecting the set of results that you are getting back, you can use > > Custom Filters Score Query. > > > > On Thursday, January 17, 2013 5:24:37 AM UTC-5, Sara wrote: > > Started to work on elasticsearch recently and it has been an > > interesting couple of months. > > > > ``` > > I have Indexed few documents in elasticsearch. Each document > > has got fields like username, biography, post, interests etc. > > I want to do a text search for 'Smith' in all the indexed > > fields with the field 'username' starting with Smith ranking > > higher than the partial match on the 'username' field and on > > other fields like post, interests etc. > > > > > > I am using grails and I have given higher boost for username > > but I want the document with username 'Smith' ranked higher > > than the document with username 'Joe Smith' or other fields > > having prefix or partial matches. How do i approach this > > issue? Thanks. > > > > ``` > > > > -- -- ---
**Author:** ![egaumer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/egaumer/32/2365_2.png) [@egaumer](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/egaumer)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2013, 2:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/text-search-with-more-preference-to-prefix-matches/10388/5 "2013-01-19T14:58:14Z")
If I understand correctly, you want exact matches on the username field to be ranked higher than partial matches on username or matches on any other fields. What about indexing username twice, using two different tokenizers? One that splits on whitespace and one that does not. Then if you want to boost exact matches on username you can use a DisMaxQuery to give a higher boost when the username is an exact match. ejs.Request() .indices(['index1', 'index2']) .types(['type1', 'type2']) .query( ejs.DisMaxQuery() .queries(ejs.MatchQuery('post', 'Smith')) .queries(ejs.MatchQuery('biography', 'Smith')) .queries(ejs.MatchQuery('interests', 'Smith')) .queries(ejs.MatchQuery('username', 'Smith') .boost(2)) .queries(ejs.MatchQuery('username\_exact', 'Smith') .boost(4))) This example can be extended/modified if you want to boost prefix matches (e.g., by using PrefixQuery or SpanFirstQuery rather than MatchQuery). Ultimately, I think you'll need to leverage DisMaxQuery. On Thursday, January 17, 2013 5:24:37 AM UTC-5, Sara wrote: > Started to work on elasticsearch recently and it has been an interesting > couple of months. > > I have Indexed few documents in elasticsearch. Each document has got > fields like username, biography, post, interests etc. I want to do a text > search for 'Smith' in all the indexed fields with the field 'username' > starting with Smith ranking higher than the partial match on the 'username' > field and on other fields like post, interests etc. > > I am using grails and I have given higher boost for username but I want > the document with username 'Smith' ranked higher than the document with > username 'Joe Smith' or other fields having prefix or partial matches. How > do i approach this issue? Thanks. -- ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 2:55am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/text-search-with-more-preference-to-prefix-matches/10388/6 "2017-07-06T02:55:33Z")