# Troubleshooting for query
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/troubleshooting-for-query/205017
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [October 24, 2019, 8:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/troubleshooting-for-query/205017 "2019-10-24T08:26:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Nee\_Defeng](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Nee_Defeng)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2019, 8:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/troubleshooting-for-query/205017/1 "2019-10-24T08:26:47Z")
Hi guys,
Just wondering how you guys will find out the reason if one query does not return the result as expected? I know you can use 'explain' api to find out how the match score is calculated, but how can I use this if that document does not show up in the query?
I have tried to use min\_score but it seems like it is for a different purpose.
Please help to point out where it is documented, and if it is not in place, may I request to add this somewhere in the online documentation? I thought it would be a general question for everybody.
---
### Author:  [@abdon](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/abdon)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2019, 3:31pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/troubleshooting-for-query/205017/2 "2019-10-25T15:31:51Z")
You can use the Explain API by hitting `_explain` on a specific document. That will tell you exactly why that specific document does not match or has a much lower score that you may have expected. [The documentation has an example](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/search-explain.html):
```auto
GET /twitter/_explain/0
{
"query" : {
"match" : { "message" : "elasticsearch" }
}
}
```
That example will explain exactly what would happen for that given query on document `0` in the `twitter` index.
---
### Author:  [@Nee\_Defeng](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Nee_Defeng)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 12:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/troubleshooting-for-query/205017/3 "2019-10-26T12:06:59Z")
Exactly, here is my example:
```
GET /myfirstfsjob/_explain/c6ddcbd625ebb66c85d5e299a21bdda7
{
"query": {
"function_score": {
"query": { "match_all": {} },
"boost": "5",
"random_score": {},
"boost_mode":"multiply",
"min_score" : 42
}
}
}
```
And here is the output:
```
{
```
"\_index" : "myfirstfsjob",
"\_type" : "\_doc",
"\_id" : "c6ddcbd625ebb66c85d5e299a21bdda7",
"matched" : false,
"explanation" : {
"value" : 0.0,
**"description" : "Score value is too low, expected at least 42.0 but got 4.5719132",**
"details" : [
{
"value" : 4.5719132,
"description" : "function score, product of:",
"details" : [
{
"value" : 5.0,
"description" : "_:_^5.0",
"details" :
},
{
"value" : 0.91438264,
"description" : "min of:",
"details" : [
{
"value" : 0.91438264,
"description" : "random score function (seed: 133470742, field: null)",
"details" :
},
{
"value" : 3.4028235E38,
"description" : "maxBoost",
"details" :
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
}
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2019, 12:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/troubleshooting-for-query/205017/4 "2019-11-23T12:07:13Z")
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