# Wildcard query returning results in random order **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [August 3, 2016, 3:33pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wildcard-query-returning-results-in-random-order/57124 "2016-08-03T15:33:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![frugal-derision](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dbc845/32.png) [@frugal-derision](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/frugal-derision)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 3:33pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wildcard-query-returning-results-in-random-order/57124/1 "2016-08-03T15:33:12Z")
Hi, I have an index and a field in the index has a custom analyzer. The custom analyzer definition is: ```auto { "settings": { "analysis": { "analyzer": { "anl_email": { "type": "custom", "tokenizer": "uax_url_email", "filter": ["lowercase", "asciifolding"] } } } } } ``` and I'm doing my wildcard query as: ```auto { "query": { "wildcard": { "Username": "*wa*" } } } ``` (the `Username` field has the custom analyzer `anl_email` defined above) The problem now is that (assuming the default size of 10), this query returns the results in a random order. So if I query once, the results will be different and executing that same query again will produce a different set of results. In all those results, each document has a score of 1. I also tried sorting on the `_score` and `_doc` properties e.g. `"sort": ["_score", "_doc"]` (as suggested in #elasticsearch), but same results. I need a consistent and predictable result set so that I can then paginate over them. Any ideas what am I doing wrong here? ---
**Author:** ![cbuescher](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/cbuescher/32/60402_2.png) [@cbuescher](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/cbuescher)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 4:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wildcard-query-returning-results-in-random-order/57124/2 "2016-08-03T16:10:27Z")
Hi, multi-term queries like "wildcard" are rewritten before beeing executed. The default setting for this is to rewrite to a `constant_score` query. Thats why your documents are all scored 1. If you want scoring, try one of the other options for rewrite mentioned here: [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-multi-term-rewrite.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-multi-term-rewrite.html) ---
**Author:** ![frugal-derision](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dbc845/32.png) [@frugal-derision](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/frugal-derision)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 4:22pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wildcard-query-returning-results-in-random-order/57124/3 "2016-08-03T16:22:18Z")
I need to allow partial search over email addresses. Is there any way I can get a predictable sort order? And also is wildcard appropriate for what I'm trying to achieve? My goal is to a) allow partial search b) paginate those results. a) partial search is working pretty well with wildcard query but not b). ---
**Author:** ![cbuescher](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/cbuescher/32/60402_2.png) [@cbuescher](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/cbuescher)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 4:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wildcard-query-returning-results-in-random-order/57124/4 "2016-08-03T16:40:13Z")
Can you simply sort by the email address field? I saw you tried "\_score" and "\_doc", but why not returning the results in alphabetical order? If thats not possible because the field is analyzed, why not store an un-analyzed version alongside it (using multi-fields) to sort on? ---
**Author:** ![frugal-derision](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dbc845/32.png) [@frugal-derision](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/frugal-derision)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 5:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wildcard-query-returning-results-in-random-order/57124/5 "2016-08-03T17:29:01Z")
I tried sorting on the `Username` field and it seems like that's exactly what I want, so thanks. But a question, you mentioned that: "If thats not possible [i.e. sorting] because the field is analyzed", now even though my field is custom analyzed, I can still sort on that field. Is this a bug/not normal? My custom analyzer's definition: ```auto "anl_email": { "type": "custom", "tokenizer": "uax_url_email", "filter": ["lowercase", "asciifolding"] } ``` ---
**Author:** ![cbuescher](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/cbuescher/32/60402_2.png) [@cbuescher](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/cbuescher)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 8:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wildcard-query-returning-results-in-random-order/57124/6 "2016-08-03T20:08:18Z")
Analyzed fields are usually broken into tokens, so by "cannot be sorted" I mean the results are unpredictable. Take the following example of a String field that (analyzed by default using the Standard Analyzer): ```auto # analyzed sorting PUT /index_a/type/1 { "content" : "X B A" } PUT /index_a/type/2 { "content" : "C Y" } GET /index_a/type/_search { "sort": [ { "content": { "order": "asc" } } ] } ===> "hits": { "total": 2, "max_score": null, "hits": [ { "_index": "index_a", "_type": "type", "_id": "1", "_score": null, "_source": { "content": "X B A" }, "sort": [ "a" ] }, { "_index": "index_a", "_type": "type", "_id": "2", "_score": null, "_source": { "content": "C Y" }, "sort": [ "c" ] } ] } ``` Now you could argue that doc 2 should be sorted first because it starts with "C", but it isn't. You don't get an error but unexpected behaviour. Also I'm not sure if this will work consistently between versions. Here's some more thoughts on that: [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/multi-fields.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/multi-fields.html) ---
**Author:** ![frugal-derision](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dbc845/32.png) [@frugal-derision](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/frugal-derision)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 8:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wildcard-query-returning-results-in-random-order/57124/7 "2016-08-03T20:38:51Z")
Thanks for the great explanation and the link, I went through that page, it was helpful. I now understand why it can be unpredictable, but for specific case here, assuming that the `Username` field is always a single valid email address, `uax_url_email` would tokenize the complete email e.g. `example@example.com` into a single token, so the field would always contain only one token, would it then, be still unpredictable/unexpected behavior? Or am I better off storing the raw email address as another string field (as suggested in the link?) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 10:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/wildcard-query-returning-results-in-random-order/57124/8 "2017-07-05T22:30:18Z")