# Unified highlighter on postings or term\_vector fields?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unified-highlighter-on-postings-or-term-vector-fields/114614>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [January 8, 2018, 8:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unified-highlighter-on-postings-or-term-vector-fields/114614 "2018-01-08T20:48:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![aslamy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/aslamy/32/18254_2.png) [@aslamy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/aslamy)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 8:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unified-highlighter-on-postings-or-term-vector-fields/114614/1 "2018-01-08T20:48:53Z")

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Hi !  
Should I use a unified highlighter on postings or term\_vector fields? Which one gives the fastest highlighter?  
I have documents with large text fields that will be highlighted.

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**Author:** ![mayya](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mayya/32/83147_2.png) [@mayya](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mayya)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2018, 10:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unified-highlighter-on-postings-or-term-vector-fields/114614/2 "2018-01-15T22:47:48Z")

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As stated in the guide: [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/master/search-request-highlighting.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/master/search-request-highlighting.html), highlighting with `postings` should take much less space, so this should be a recommended option for a unified highlighter.  
But if you need to run multi-term queries like `prefix` or `wildcard`, it is recommended for you to use `term_vectors`, as `postings` don't provide enough information. For these types of queries an expensive analysis needed to be done during query time if `term_vectors` are not available.

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**Author:** ![aslamy1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/aslamy1/32/26607_2.png) [@aslamy1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/aslamy1)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 10:01am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unified-highlighter-on-postings-or-term-vector-fields/114614/3 "2018-01-16T10:01:54Z")

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Thank you for your answer. But my question specifically was about performance. "Which one gives the fastest highlighter?"

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2018, 10:02am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unified-highlighter-on-postings-or-term-vector-fields/114614/4 "2018-02-13T10:02:35Z")

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