# Wildcard Analysis in simple\_query\_string Query

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wildcard-analysis-in-simple-query-string-query/211953>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [December 16, 2019, 8:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wildcard-analysis-in-simple-query-string-query/211953 "2019-12-16T08:07:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![burakyuksel](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/burakyuksel/32/51147_2.png) [@burakyuksel](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/burakyuksel)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 8:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wildcard-analysis-in-simple-query-string-query/211953/1 "2019-12-16T08:07:38Z")

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Hello,

I wonder how ES analyzes wildcard in simple\_query\_string queries. Specifically, what happens when query string includes a stop word and asterisk (\*).

In my case,

My index has a custom analyzer with a bunch of filters including stop word filter and a char filter. And I'm running a simple\_query\_string query by setting analyze\_wildcard option to true and query string to (\<a stop word\>\*). How does analyzer work in this case?

Notes:

- I get no hits.
- I get hits when analyze\_wildcard is set to false. (i.e There are entries of which queried field value is starting with \<a stop word\> in query string.)

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**Author:** ![spinscale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/spinscale/32/25011_2.png) [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 8:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wildcard-analysis-in-simple-query-string-query/211953/2 "2019-12-16T08:48:38Z")

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You can run your query with the `explain` parameter and you will see what the final query looked like, that may help getting down to your issue.

See [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.5/search-request-body.html#request-body-search-explain](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.5/search-request-body.html#request-body-search-explain)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![burakyuksel](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/burakyuksel/32/51147_2.png) [@burakyuksel](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/burakyuksel)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 10:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wildcard-analysis-in-simple-query-string-query/211953/3 "2019-12-16T10:04:32Z")

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In documentation, it says:

> Enables explanation for each hit on how its score was computed.

It helped for analyze\_wildcard = false case, that I get hits. But no good for my main question where analyze\_wildcard option is set to true ☹

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![spinscale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/spinscale/32/25011_2.png) [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 11:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wildcard-analysis-in-simple-query-string-query/211953/4 "2019-12-16T11:54:51Z")

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You can use the dedicated [explain API](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.5/search-explain.html) for this.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![burakyuksel](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/burakyuksel/32/51147_2.png) [@burakyuksel](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/burakyuksel)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 2:16pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wildcard-analysis-in-simple-query-string-query/211953/5 "2019-12-16T14:16:42Z")

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Thanks for your help @spinscale 🙂

I got what I want here. I just want to report that analysis of wildcard terms looks a little bit problematic, and **analyze\_wildcard** is explained in an uncertain way in the documentation. Even, there is an open issue about it from 2016 🙂

> <https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/20209>
>
> If we get #20208 in then the only remaining benefit of the analyze\_wildcard option is that it tokenizes prefix queries so...

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<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:** [January 13, 2020, 2:16pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wildcard-analysis-in-simple-query-string-query/211953/6 "2020-01-13T14:16:57Z")

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