# Unexpected scores when doing a fuzzy search **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [December 5, 2013, 2:05am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unexpected-scores-when-doing-a-fuzzy-search/14719 "2013-12-05T02:05:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mike\_Lewin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea5d25/32.png) [@Mike\_Lewin](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mike_Lewin)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 2:05am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unexpected-scores-when-doing-a-fuzzy-search/14719/1 "2013-12-05T02:05:15Z")
Hello, I am new to elasticsearch and I've found that fuzzy searches do not return results in the expected order (which in my example below would be the 2 Jon Smyths having the joint highest score). Other strange behaviour I have noticed: - identical documents have different scores - re-running the script below (dropping and reimporting the data) gives different scores each time - running the search query with ?pretty=true, it says that every result has score=1 Can anybody help? thanks Mike elasticsearch-0.90.3 java 1.6.0\_24 OS: Centos 6 1 node with 3 very small indices gateway: local script: #! /bin/sh # set -x echo "\ndeleting table" curl -XDELETE [http://localhost:9200/test/](http://localhost:9200/test/) echo "\ncreating table" curl -XPOST [http://localhost:9200/test/](http://localhost:9200/test/) -d ' { "mappings": { "people": { "properties": { "name": { "type": "string" }, "age": { "type": "integer" } ``` } } ``` } }' echo "\nadding document" curl -XPOST [http://localhost:9200/test/people](http://localhost:9200/test/people) -d ' { "name": "John Smith", "age": "21" }' echo "\nadding document" curl -XPOST [http://localhost:9200/test/people](http://localhost:9200/test/people) -d ' { "name": "John Smith", "age": "21" }' echo "\nadding document" curl -XPOST [http://localhost:9200/test/people](http://localhost:9200/test/people) -d ' { "name": "Jon Smyth", "age": "22" }' echo "\nadding document" curl -XPOST [http://localhost:9200/test/people](http://localhost:9200/test/people) -d ' { "name": "Jon Smyth", "age": "22" }' echo "\nadding document" curl -XPOST [http://localhost:9200/test/people](http://localhost:9200/test/people) -d ' { "name": "Jo Smith", "age": "23" }' echo "\nadding document" curl -XPOST [http://localhost:9200/test/people](http://localhost:9200/test/people) -d ' { "name": "Jo", "age": "23" }' echo "\nrefreshing index" curl -XPOST '[http://localhost:9200/test/\_refresh](http://localhost:9200/test/_refresh)' echo "\nquerying data" curl -XGET '[http://localhost:9200/test/people/\_search?q=Jon~](http://localhost:9200/test/people/_search?q=Jon~)' sample output: {"took":9,"timed\_out":false,"\_shards":{"total":5,"successful":5,"failed":0},"hits":{"total":6,"max\_score":0.4,"hits": [{"\_index":"test","\_type":"people","\_id":"MlAA7J7GR-CmYPwH9v4rbg","\_score":0.4, "\_source" : { "name": "John Smith", "age": "21" }},{"\_index":"test","\_type":"people","\_id":"gPFQyQB5QmuiIHo5PjUkGQ","\_score":0.375, "\_source" : { "name": "Jo", "age": "23" }},{"\_index":"test","\_type":"people","\_id":"sI77qIhQTw-QfisxBxEbbw","\_score":0.15342641, "\_source" : { "name": "Jon Smyth", "age": "22" }},{"\_index":"test","\_type":"people","\_id":"lHr29sSnQl6CfzIegDF6zA","\_score":0.15342641, "\_source" : { "name": "Jon Smyth", "age": "22" }},{"\_index":"test","\_type":"people","\_id":"wNl6oNeMRGG4LIo3svsHIA","\_score":0.15342641, "\_source" : { "name": "Jo Smith", "age": "23" }},{"\_index":"test","\_type":"people","\_id":"K0jHhzo5RQONwZnmwaI0tg","\_score":0.1534264, "\_source" : { "name": "John Smith", "age": "21" }}]}} -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/ee952578-55b1-49f0-995b-d16a62ff2c53%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/ee952578-55b1-49f0-995b-d16a62ff2c53%40googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Lewin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea5d25/32.png) [@Mike\_Lewin](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mike_Lewin)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2013, 11:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unexpected-scores-when-doing-a-fuzzy-search/14719/2 "2013-12-08T23:55:24Z")
Just to update this - I looked around some more and found some related posts: [https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/elasticsearch/fuzzy/elasticsearch/IqwZLJHDoB4/U04G6Q7o\_3UJ](https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/elasticsearch/fuzzy/elasticsearch/IqwZLJHDoB4/U04G6Q7o_3UJ) [https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/elasticsearch/fuzzy/elasticsearch/KKeXEo2LiCo/8IQkqqq7NRYJ](https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/elasticsearch/fuzzy/elasticsearch/KKeXEo2LiCo/8IQkqqq7NRYJ) I did find that if I enter multiple search terms ["Jon~2","Jon~1","Jon"] then the scores look more like what I'd expect. It seems like the advice from Kimchy was to use a rewrite method but I'm not sure what's the correct syntax to make that work. I added "rewrite": "top\_terms\_100" after "query": "Jon~" but it had no effect. I'd be grateful to hear people's opinions on the other bugs I mentioned, in particular: - identical documents have different scores - re-running the script below (dropping and reimporting the data) gives different scores each time Can anyone reproduce these bugs with the script I provided? thanks Mike On Thursday, December 5, 2013 2:05:15 AM UTC, Mike Lewin wrote: > Hello, I am new to elasticsearch and I've found that fuzzy searches do not > return results in the expected order (which in my example below would be > the 2 Jon Smyths having the joint highest score). Other strange behaviour I > have noticed: > > - identical documents have different scores > - re-running the script below (dropping and reimporting the data) gives > different scores each time > - running the search query with ?pretty=true, it says that every result > has score=1 > > Can anybody help? > > thanks > Mike > > elasticsearch-0.90.3 > java 1.6.0\_24 > OS: Centos 6 > 1 node with 3 very small indices > gateway: local > > script: > #! /bin/sh > > # set -x > > echo "\ndeleting table" > curl -XDELETE [http://localhost:9200/test/](http://localhost:9200/test/) > echo "\ncreating table" > curl -XPOST [http://localhost:9200/test/](http://localhost:9200/test/) -d ' > { > "mappings": { > "people": { > "properties": { > "name": { > "type": "string" > }, > "age": { > "type": "integer" > } > > ``` > } > } > > ``` > > } > }' > echo "\nadding document" > curl -XPOST [http://localhost:9200/test/people](http://localhost:9200/test/people) -d ' > { > "name": "John Smith", > "age": "21" > }' > echo "\nadding document" > curl -XPOST [http://localhost:9200/test/people](http://localhost:9200/test/people) -d ' > { > "name": "John Smith", > "age": "21" > }' > echo "\nadding document" > curl -XPOST [http://localhost:9200/test/people](http://localhost:9200/test/people) -d ' > { > "name": "Jon Smyth", > "age": "22" > }' > echo "\nadding document" > curl -XPOST [http://localhost:9200/test/people](http://localhost:9200/test/people) -d ' > { > "name": "Jon Smyth", > "age": "22" > }' > echo "\nadding document" > curl -XPOST [http://localhost:9200/test/people](http://localhost:9200/test/people) -d ' > { > "name": "Jo Smith", > "age": "23" > }' > echo "\nadding document" > curl -XPOST [http://localhost:9200/test/people](http://localhost:9200/test/people) -d ' > { > "name": "Jo", > "age": "23" > }' > echo "\nrefreshing index" > curl -XPOST '[http://localhost:9200/test/\_refresh](http://localhost:9200/test/_refresh)' > echo "\nquerying data" > curl -XGET '[http://localhost:9200/test/people/\_search?q=Jon~](http://localhost:9200/test/people/_search?q=Jon~)' > > sample output: > > {"took":9,"timed\_out":false,"\_shards":{"total":5,"successful":5,"failed":0},"hits":{"total":6,"max\_score":0.4,"hits": > [{"\_index":"test","\_type":"people","\_id":"MlAA7J7GR-CmYPwH9v4rbg","\_score":0.4, > "\_source" : > { > "name": "John Smith", > "age": "21" > }},{"\_index":"test","\_type":"people","\_id":"gPFQyQB5QmuiIHo5PjUkGQ","\_score":0.375, > "\_source" : > { > "name": "Jo", > "age": "23" > }},{"\_index":"test","\_type":"people","\_id":"sI77qIhQTw-QfisxBxEbbw","\_score":0.15342641, > "\_source" : > { > "name": "Jon Smyth", > "age": "22" > }},{"\_index":"test","\_type":"people","\_id":"lHr29sSnQl6CfzIegDF6zA","\_score":0.15342641, > "\_source" : > { > "name": "Jon Smyth", > "age": "22" > }},{"\_index":"test","\_type":"people","\_id":"wNl6oNeMRGG4LIo3svsHIA","\_score":0.15342641, > "\_source" : > { > "name": "Jo Smith", > "age": "23" > }},{"\_index":"test","\_type":"people","\_id":"K0jHhzo5RQONwZnmwaI0tg","\_score":0.1534264, > "\_source" : > { > "name": "John Smith", > "age": "21" > }}]}} -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/e7deecfa-6e43-470d-a41b-32eb820a7fed%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/e7deecfa-6e43-470d-a41b-32eb820a7fed%40googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**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, 2:02am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unexpected-scores-when-doing-a-fuzzy-search/14719/3 "2017-07-06T02:02:36Z")