# Wild card search required instead of searching to a specific field name in elasticsearch
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wild-card-search-required-instead-of-searching-to-a-specific-field-name-in-elasticsearch/53413
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [June 21, 2016, 6:28am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wild-card-search-required-instead-of-searching-to-a-specific-field-name-in-elasticsearch/53413 "2016-06-21T06:28:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ajoealex](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ajoealex)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2016, 6:28am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wild-card-search-required-instead-of-searching-to-a-specific-field-name-in-elasticsearch/53413/1 "2016-06-21T06:28:44Z")
I am working on elasticsearch 2.3.3. While querying the search, I am getting results only when field name is specified. ie
```
GET /mydocs/_search?q=file.content:cat
```
but I need to search without giving the field name. How is it possible?
---
### Author:  [@polyfractal](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/polyfractal)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2016, 4:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wild-card-search-required-instead-of-searching-to-a-specific-field-name-in-elasticsearch/53413/2 "2016-06-21T16:30:13Z")
You can either search the [\_all field](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/mapping-all-field.html), which is a special field that is a concatenation of all fields, or you can use more complex queries like the [multi\_match query](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-multi-match-query.html), or combinations of booleans.
For more background and theory, see: [Multi-field Search from The Definitive Guide](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/multi-field-search.html)
---
### Author:  [@ajoealex](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ajoealex)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2016, 3:16am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wild-card-search-required-instead-of-searching-to-a-specific-field-name-in-elasticsearch/53413/3 "2016-06-22T03:16:20Z")
User is not aware of any field names,they will enter the text to search(I am using kibana). We internally need to check whether the given text is contained in the title or attached content. Is it possible using kibana?
---
### Author:  [@polyfractal](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/polyfractal)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2016, 11:36am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wild-card-search-required-instead-of-searching-to-a-specific-field-name-in-elasticsearch/53413/4 "2016-06-22T11:36:10Z")
Hm, did you disable the \_all field in your mapping? By default, if a query doesn't specify a field to search, the \_all field is searched. This includes searches originating in Kibana.
If you don't want everything to go into the \_all field, you can set `include_in_all: false` for certain fields, or disable it completely and build a new one using `copy_to`, then set `index.query.default_field` to that new field. See: [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/mapping-all-field.html#disabling-all-field](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/mapping-all-field.html#disabling-all-field)
---
### Author:  [@ajoealex](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ajoealex)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2016, 11:40am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wild-card-search-required-instead-of-searching-to-a-specific-field-name-in-elasticsearch/53413/5 "2016-06-22T11:40:40Z")
How do I set this property? I am using c# NEST to create index. Could you please show me how to do it?
My create index code:
```
var fullNameFilters = new List { "lowercase", "snowball" };
client.CreateIndex("mydocs", c => c
.Settings(st => st
.Analysis(anl => anl
.Analyzers(h => h
.Custom("full", ff => ff
.Filters(fullNameFilters)
.Tokenizer("standard"))
)
.TokenFilters(ba => ba
.Snowball("snowball", sn => sn
.Language(SnowballLanguage.English)))
))
.Mappings(mp => mp
.Map(ms => ms
.AutoMap()
.Properties(ps => ps
.Nested(n => n
.Name(sc => sc.File)
.AutoMap()
))
.Properties(at => at
.Attachment(a => a.Name(o => o.File)
.FileField(fl=>fl.Analyzer("full"))
.TitleField(t => t.Name(x => x.Title)
.Analyzer("full")
.TermVector(TermVectorOption.WithPositionsOffsets)
)))
))
);
```
---
### Author:  [@polyfractal](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/polyfractal)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2016, 11:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wild-card-search-required-instead-of-searching-to-a-specific-field-name-in-elasticsearch/53413/6 "2016-06-22T11:44:34Z")
I'm afraid I'm not very familiar with the NEST client. It's a mapping configuration, so it needs to be set via the Put Mappings API. And it needs to be done before data is indexed to work properly (since ES needs to copy the data into that field during index-time)
You should be able to use NEST's mapping endpoints ([https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/net-api/current/auto-map.html#\_manual\_mapping](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/net-api/current/auto-map.html#_manual_mapping)) and copy the syntax from the prior link about the \_all field.
---
### Author:  [@ajoealex](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ajoealex)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2016, 1:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wild-card-search-required-instead-of-searching-to-a-specific-field-name-in-elasticsearch/53413/7 "2016-06-22T13:43:52Z")
Thank you @polyfractal . I got the solution
[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/37967551/set-index-query-default-field-using-nest-client-c-sharp](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/37967551/set-index-query-default-field-using-nest-client-c-sharp)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 10:41pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wild-card-search-required-instead-of-searching-to-a-specific-field-name-in-elasticsearch/53413/8 "2017-07-05T22:41:24Z")