[[analysis-chargroup-tokenizer]]
=== Character group tokenizer
++++
<titleabbrev>Character group</titleabbrev>
++++

The `char_group` tokenizer breaks text into terms whenever it encounters a
character which is in a defined set. It is mostly useful for cases where a simple
custom tokenization is desired, and the overhead of use of the <<analysis-pattern-tokenizer, `pattern` tokenizer>>
is not acceptable.

[discrete]
=== Configuration

The `char_group` tokenizer accepts one parameter:

[horizontal]
`tokenize_on_chars`::
    A list containing a list of characters to tokenize the string on. Whenever a character
    from this list is encountered, a new token is started. This accepts either single
    characters like e.g. `-`, or character groups: `whitespace`, `letter`, `digit`,
    `punctuation`, `symbol`.

`max_token_length`::
    The maximum token length. If a token is seen that exceeds this length then
    it is split at `max_token_length` intervals. Defaults to `255`.


[discrete]
=== Example output

[source,console]
---------------------------
POST _analyze
{
  "tokenizer": {
    "type": "char_group",
    "tokenize_on_chars": [
      "whitespace",
      "-",
      "\n"
    ]
  },
  "text": "The QUICK brown-fox"
}
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returns

[source,console-result]
---------------------------
{
  "tokens": [
    {
      "token": "The",
      "start_offset": 0,
      "end_offset": 3,
      "type": "word",
      "position": 0
    },
    {
      "token": "QUICK",
      "start_offset": 4,
      "end_offset": 9,
      "type": "word",
      "position": 1
    },
    {
      "token": "brown",
      "start_offset": 10,
      "end_offset": 15,
      "type": "word",
      "position": 2
    },
    {
      "token": "fox",
      "start_offset": 16,
      "end_offset": 19,
      "type": "word",
      "position": 3
    }
  ]
}
---------------------------