# What is the approach for edge\_ngram search query to have a correct word slop count?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-the-approach-for-edge-ngram-search-query-to-have-a-correct-word-slop-count/319301>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** eql-elastic-query-language\
**Created:** [November 18, 2022, 12:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-the-approach-for-edge-ngram-search-query-to-have-a-correct-word-slop-count/319301 "2022-11-18T12:59:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![orange.cold256](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/orange.cold256/32/113524_2.png) [@orange.cold256](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/orange.cold256)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 12:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-the-approach-for-edge-ngram-search-query-to-have-a-correct-word-slop-count/319301/1 "2022-11-18T12:59:57Z")

</div>

I'm trying to make a `soft` prefix-search within n fields. Also the distance between tokens is a must. so I've decided to use edge\_ngrams with a `bool` query. But as far the tokens are `edge_ngrams` the slop is calculated in the same way - with ngrams instead of words.

Initial conditions:

- Index settings `PUT http://localhost:9200/test`

```auto
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "someField": {
        "type": "text",
        "analyzer": "autocomplete",
        "search_analyzer": "autocomplete_search"
      },
      "anotherField": {
        "type": "text"
      }
    }
  },
  "settings": {
    "number_of_shards": "1",
    "number_of_replicas": "1",
    "analysis": {
      "analyzer": {
        "autocomplete": {
          "tokenizer": "autocomplete",
          "filter": [
            "lowercase"
          ]
        },
        "autocomplete_search": {
          "tokenizer": "lowercase"
        }
      },
      "tokenizer": {
        "autocomplete": {
          "type": "edge_ngram",
          "min_gram": 2,
          "max_gram": 20,
          "token_chars": [
            "letter"
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

```

- Sample document `POST http://localhost:9200/test/_create/1`

```auto
{
  "someField": "one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven",
  "anotherField": "one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven"
}

```

- Search request `POST http://localhost:9200/test/_search?typed_keys=true`

```auto
{
  "highlight": {
    "fields": {
      "someField": {},
      "anotherField": {}
    }
  },
  "query": {
    "bool": {
      "must": {
        "dis_max": {
          "tie_breaker": 0.9,
          "queries": [
            {
              "match_phrase": {
                "someField": {
                  "query": "thre elev",
                  "slop": 24
                }
              }
            },
            {
              "match_phrase": {
                "anotherField": {
                  "query": "thre elev",
                  "slop": 24
                }
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      },
      "filter": [
        // my custom filters...
      ]
    }
  }
}

```

My expectations:

1. While searching for `"thre elev"` I should find the given document (that's ok)
2. The matches should exist by both `someFIeld` and `anotherField` fields (the match is available by `someField` only cause by `search_analyzer` setting).
3. There are 7 words between `three` and `eleven`, but the `edge_ngram` tokenization affects it, so the real slop is higher & unpredictable (that's also not ok).

_Please, pay attention that I use slop of 24. That's because the request with a lesser slop returns no hits. I understand, that due to tokenizer settings the distance between these words is counted **in ngrams but not in words**._

I can feel that this way of search (using `dis_max` of `match_phrase` queries) to be the wrong approach for my type of search, but do not have an expertise to find a proper solution.

Can anything be done with this? p.s. also I want to add fuzziness into a query, but `match_phrase` do not support it... ☹

---

<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:** [December 16, 2022, 1:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-the-approach-for-edge-ngram-search-query-to-have-a-correct-word-slop-count/319301/2 "2022-12-16T13:00:17Z")

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