# Workaround for using wild cards in phrases and proximity searches(Elastic Search)
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/workaround-for-using-wild-cards-in-phrases-and-proximity-searches-elastic-search/18373
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [June 27, 2014, 1:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/workaround-for-using-wild-cards-in-phrases-and-proximity-searches-elastic-search/18373 "2014-06-27T13:48:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@saud\_ur\_rehman](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/saud_ur_rehman)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2014, 1:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/workaround-for-using-wild-cards-in-phrases-and-proximity-searches-elastic-search/18373/1 "2014-06-27T13:48:33Z")
Problem:
Recently I wanted to do a proximity search on elastic search index. I
wanted to search all docs where ‘measles’ and ‘vaccin\*’ were with 25
characters to each other. Plus I wanted both of them to be in order.
The elastic search proximity search wasn’t an option because of two
reasons.
1. Proximity search doesn’t support wildcards. e.g (“measles vaccine”)~25
is supported but (“measles vacci\*”)~25 or (“measle\* vacci\*”) is not
supported.
2. Proximity search doesn’t check the respect the order of words in phrase
e.g (“measles vaccine”)~25 and (“vaccine measles”)~25 will give same
results.
Solution:
Few examples to resolve this issue using span\_near
1. (“measles vacci\*”)~25
{
"query": {
"span\_near": {
"clauses": [
{
"span\_or": {
"clauses": [
{
"span\_term": {
"text": "measles"
}
}
]
}
},
{
"span\_or": {
"clauses": [
{
"span\_multi": {
"match": {
"prefix": {
"text": {
"value": "vacci"
}
}
}
}
}
]
}
}
],
"slop": 25,
"in\_order": "true”,
"collect\_payloads": "true"
}
}
}
// in\_order can be used to toggle between ordered or unordered.
1. “measle\* vacci\*”
{
"query": {
"span\_near": {
"clauses": [
{
"span\_or": {
"clauses": [
{
"span\_multi": {
"match": {
"prefix": {
"text": {
"value": "measle"
}
}
}
}
}
]
}
},
{
"span\_or": {
"clauses": [
{
"span\_multi": {
"match": {
"prefix": {
"text": {
"value": "vacci"
}
}
}
}
}
]
}
}
],
"slop": 0,
"in\_order": "true",
"collect\_payloads": "true"
}
}
}
2. Grouping. Now lets assume you want to find all docs where (canada OR
toronto OR “North york”) NEAR (measles OR vaccin\*). And they should be near
to each other by 30 characters.
{
"query": {
"span\_near": {
"clauses": [
{
"span\_or": {
"clauses": [
{
"span\_near": {
"clauses": [
{
"span\_term": {
"text": "North"
}
},
{
"span\_term": {
"text": "york"
}
}
],
"slop": 0,
"in\_order": "true",
"collect\_payloads": "true"
}
},
{
"span\_term": {
"text": "toronto"
}
},
{
"span\_term": {
"text": "canada"
}
}
]
}
},
{
"span\_or": {
"clauses": [
{
"span\_term": {
"text": "measles"
}
},
{
"span\_multi": {
"match": {
"prefix": {
"text": {
"value": "vaccin"
}
}
}
}
}
]
}
}
],
"slop": 30,
"in\_order": "false",
"collect\_payloads": "true"
}
}
}
If any one knows better solution than this one please comment. Any
suggestions how I can build a parser to take query from user e.g (quick AND
near(foxes OR rats, toronto OR ontario, 30)) and convert that to elastic
search span\_near using above workaround. Boolean operators and parenthesis
precedence is what I am finding hard to handle. Any open source PHP library
which can help me change user written queries with parenthesis and boolean
operator to ES filters.
@shay banon, @ steven @uri: any plans to have such operator support in the
query\_string
References:
[http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/0.90/query-dsl-span-near-query.html](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/0.90/query-dsl-span-near-query.html)
[http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/0.90/query-dsl-span-multi-term-query.html](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/0.90/query-dsl-span-multi-term-query.html)
[http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/0.90/query-dsl-span-or-query.html](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/0.90/query-dsl-span-or-query.html)
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---
### Author:  [@Kevin\_Brown](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Kevin_Brown)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/workaround-for-using-wild-cards-in-phrases-and-proximity-searches-elastic-search/18373/2 "2016-03-17T20:44:36Z")
Saud, thanks for your post. Did you by chance figure a good way to convert user written queries into Elasticsearch queries? I'm facing the same issues!
> [@saud\_ur\_rehman](#):
>
> If any one knows better solution than this one please comment. Any
> suggestions how I can build a parser to take query from user e.g (quick AND
> near(foxes OR rats, toronto OR ontario, 30)) and convert that to elastic
> search span\_near using above workaround. Boolean operators and parenthesis
> precedence is what I am finding hard to handle. Any open source PHP library
> which can help me change user written queries with parenthesis and boolean
> operator to ES filters.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 11:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/workaround-for-using-wild-cards-in-phrases-and-proximity-searches-elastic-search/18373/3 "2017-07-05T23:07:28Z")