[[query-dsl-query-string-query]] === Query string query ++++ Query string ++++ Returns documents based on a provided query string, using a parser with a strict syntax. This query uses a <> to parse and split the provided query string based on operators, such as `AND` or `NOT`. The query then <> each split text independently before returning matching documents. You can use the `query_string` query to create a complex search that includes wildcard characters, searches across multiple fields, and more. While versatile, the query is strict and returns an error if the query string includes any invalid syntax. [WARNING] ==== Because it returns an error for any invalid syntax, we don't recommend using the `query_string` query for search boxes. If you don't need to support a query syntax, consider using the <> query. If you need the features of a query syntax, use the <> query, which is less strict. ==== [[query-string-query-ex-request]] ==== Example request When running the following search, the `query_string` query splits `(new york city) OR (big apple)` into two parts: `new york city` and `big apple`. The `content` field's analyzer then independently converts each part into tokens before returning matching documents. Because the query syntax does not use whitespace as an operator, `new york city` is passed as-is to the analyzer. [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- GET /_search { "query": { "query_string" : { "query" : "(new york city) OR (big apple)", "default_field" : "content" } } } -------------------------------------------------- // CONSOLE [[query-string-top-level-params]] ==== Top-level parameters for `query_string` `query`:: (Required, string) Query string you wish to parse and use for search. See <>. `default_field`:: + -- (Optional, string) Default field you wish to search if no field is provided in the query string. Defaults to the `index.query.default_field` index setting, which has a default value of `*`. The `*` value extracts all fields that are eligible to term queries and filters the metadata fields. All extracted fields are then combined to build a query if no `prefix` is specified. WARNING: There is a limit on the number of fields that can be queried at once. It is defined by the `indices.query.bool.max_clause_count` <>, which defaults to 1024. -- `allow_leading_wildcard`:: (Optional, boolean) If `true`, the wildcard characters `*` and `?` are allowed as the first character of the query string. Defaults to `true`. `analyze_wildcard`:: (Optional, boolean) If `true`, the query attempts to analyze wildcard terms in the query string. Defaults to `false`. `analyzer`:: (Optional, string) <> used to convert text in the query string into tokens. Defaults to the <> mapped for the `default_field`. If no analyzer is mapped, the index's default analyzer is used. `auto_generate_synonyms_phrase_query`:: (Optional, boolean) If `true`, <> queries are automatically created for multi-term synonyms. Defaults to `true`. See <> for an example. `boost`:: + -- (Optional, float) Floating point number used to decrease or increase the <> of the query. Defaults to `1.0`. Boost values are relative to the default value of `1.0`. A boost value between `0` and `1.0` decreases the relevance score. A value greater than `1.0` increases the relevance score. -- `default_operator`:: + -- (Optional, string) Default boolean logic used to interpret text in the query string if no operators are specified. Valid values are: `OR` (Default):: For example, a query string of `capital of Hungary` is interpreted as `capital OR of OR Hungary`. `AND`:: For example, a query string of `capital of Hungary` is interpreted as `capital AND of AND Hungary`. -- `enable_position_increments`:: (Optional, boolean) If `true`, enable position increments in queries constructed from a `query_string` search. Defaults to `true`. `fields`:: + -- (Optional, array of strings) Array of fields you wish to search. You can use this parameter query to search across multiple fields. See <>. -- `fuzziness`:: (Optional, string) Maximum edit distance allowed for matching. See <> for valid values and more information. `fuzzy_max_expansions`:: (Optional, integer) Maximum number of terms to which the query expands for fuzzy matching. Defaults to `50`. `fuzzy_prefix_length`:: (Optional, integer) Number of beginning characters left unchanged for fuzzy matching. Defaults to `0`. `fuzzy_transpositions`:: (Optional, boolean) If `true`, edits for fuzzy matching include transpositions of two adjacent characters (ab → ba). Defaults to `true`. `lenient`:: (Optional, boolean) If `true`, format-based errors, such as providing a text value for a <> field, are ignored. Defaults to `false`. `max_determinized_states`:: + -- (Optional, integer) Maximum number of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deterministic_finite_automaton[automaton states] required for the query. Default is `10000`. {es} uses https://lucene.apache.org/core/[Apache Lucene] internally to parse regular expressions. Lucene converts each regular expression to a finite automaton containing a number of determinized states. You can use this parameter to prevent that conversion from unintentionally consuming too many resources. You may need to increase this limit to run complex regular expressions. -- `minimum_should_match`:: (Optional, string) Minimum number of clauses that must match for a document to be returned. See the <> for valid values and more information. See <> for an example. `quote_analyzer`:: + -- (Optional, string) <> used to convert quoted text in the query string into tokens. Defaults to the <> mapped for the `default_field`. For quoted text, this parameter overrides the analyzer specified in the `analyzer` parameter. -- `phrase_slop`:: (Optional, integer) Maximum number of positions allowed between matching tokens for phrases. Defaults to `0`. If `0`, exact phrase matches are required. Transposed terms have a slop of `2`. `quote_field_suffix`:: + -- (Optional, string) Suffix appended to quoted text in the query string. You can use this suffix to use a different analysis method for exact matches. See <>. -- `rewrite`:: (Optional, string) Method used to rewrite the query. For valid values and more information, see the <>. `time_zone`:: + -- (Optional, string) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UTC_time_offsets[Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) offset] or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones[IANA time zone] used to convert `date` values in the query string to UTC. Valid values are ISO 8601 UTC offsets, such as `+01:00` or -`08:00`, and IANA time zone IDs, such as `America/Los_Angeles`. [NOTE] ==== The `time_zone` parameter does **not** affect the <> value of `now`. `now` is always the current system time in UTC. However, the `time_zone` parameter does convert dates calculated using `now` and <>. For example, the `time_zone` parameter will convert a value of `now/d`. ==== -- [[query-string-query-notes]] ==== Notes include::query-string-syntax.asciidoc[] [[query-string-nested]] ====== Avoid using the `query_string` query for nested documents `query_string` searches do not return <> documents. To search nested documents, use the <>. [[query-string-multi-field]] ====== Search multiple fields You can use the `fields` parameter to perform a `query_string` search across multiple fields. The idea of running the `query_string` query against multiple fields is to expand each query term to an OR clause like this: ``` field1:query_term OR field2:query_term | ... ``` For example, the following query [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- GET /_search { "query": { "query_string" : { "fields" : ["content", "name"], "query" : "this AND that" } } } -------------------------------------------------- // CONSOLE matches the same words as [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- GET /_search { "query": { "query_string": { "query": "(content:this OR name:this) AND (content:that OR name:that)" } } } -------------------------------------------------- // CONSOLE Since several queries are generated from the individual search terms, combining them is automatically done using a `dis_max` query with a `tie_breaker`. For example (the `name` is boosted by 5 using `^5` notation): [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- GET /_search { "query": { "query_string" : { "fields" : ["content", "name^5"], "query" : "this AND that OR thus", "tie_breaker" : 0 } } } -------------------------------------------------- // CONSOLE Simple wildcard can also be used to search "within" specific inner elements of the document. For example, if we have a `city` object with several fields (or inner object with fields) in it, we can automatically search on all "city" fields: [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- GET /_search { "query": { "query_string" : { "fields" : ["city.*"], "query" : "this AND that OR thus" } } } -------------------------------------------------- // CONSOLE Another option is to provide the wildcard fields search in the query string itself (properly escaping the `*` sign), for example: `city.\*:something`: [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- GET /_search { "query": { "query_string" : { "query" : "city.\\*:(this AND that OR thus)" } } } -------------------------------------------------- // CONSOLE NOTE: Since `\` (backslash) is a special character in json strings, it needs to be escaped, hence the two backslashes in the above `query_string`. The fields parameter can also include pattern based field names, allowing to automatically expand to the relevant fields (dynamically introduced fields included). For example: [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- GET /_search { "query": { "query_string" : { "fields" : ["content", "name.*^5"], "query" : "this AND that OR thus" } } } -------------------------------------------------- // CONSOLE [[query-string-multi-field-parms]] ====== Additional parameters for multiple field searches When running the `query_string` query against multiple fields, the following additional parameters are supported. `type`:: + -- (Optional, string) Determines how the query matches and scores documents. Valid values are: `best_fields` (Default):: Finds documents which match any field and uses the highest <> from any matching field. See <>. `bool_prefix`:: Creates a `match_bool_prefix` query on each field and combines the `_score` from each field. See <>. `cross_fields`:: Treats fields with the same `analyzer` as though they were one big field. Looks for each word in **any** field. See <>. `most_fields`:: Finds documents which match any field and combines the `_score` from each field. See <>. `phrase`:: Runs a `match_phrase` query on each field and uses the `_score` from the best field. See <>. `phrase_prefix`:: Runs a `match_phrase_prefix` query on each field and uses the `_score` from the best field. See <>. NOTE: Additional top-level `multi_match` parameters may be available based on the <> value. -- [[query-string-synonyms]] ===== Synonyms and the `query_string` query The `query_string` query supports multi-terms synonym expansion with the <> token filter. When this filter is used, the parser creates a phrase query for each multi-terms synonyms. For example, the following synonym: `ny, new york` would produce: `(ny OR ("new york"))` It is also possible to match multi terms synonyms with conjunctions instead: [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- GET /_search { "query": { "query_string" : { "default_field": "title", "query" : "ny city", "auto_generate_synonyms_phrase_query" : false } } } -------------------------------------------------- // CONSOLE The example above creates a boolean query: `(ny OR (new AND york)) city` that matches documents with the term `ny` or the conjunction `new AND york`. By default the parameter `auto_generate_synonyms_phrase_query` is set to `true`. [[query-string-min-should-match]] ===== How `minimum_should_match` works The `query_string` splits the query around each operator to create a boolean query for the entire input. You can use `minimum_should_match` to control how many "should" clauses in the resulting query should match. [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- GET /_search { "query": { "query_string": { "fields": [ "title" ], "query": "this that thus", "minimum_should_match": 2 } } } -------------------------------------------------- // CONSOLE The example above creates a boolean query: `(title:this title:that title:thus)~2` that matches documents with at least two of the terms `this`, `that` or `thus` in the single field `title`. [[query-string-min-should-match-multi]] ===== How `minimum_should_match` works for multiple fields [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- GET /_search { "query": { "query_string": { "fields": [ "title", "content" ], "query": "this that thus", "minimum_should_match": 2 } } } -------------------------------------------------- // CONSOLE The example above creates a boolean query: `((content:this content:that content:thus) | (title:this title:that title:thus))` that matches documents with the disjunction max over the fields `title` and `content`. Here the `minimum_should_match` parameter can't be applied. [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- GET /_search { "query": { "query_string": { "fields": [ "title", "content" ], "query": "this OR that OR thus", "minimum_should_match": 2 } } } -------------------------------------------------- // CONSOLE Adding explicit operators forces each term to be considered as a separate clause. The example above creates a boolean query: `((content:this | title:this) (content:that | title:that) (content:thus | title:thus))~2` that matches documents with at least two of the three "should" clauses, each of them made of the disjunction max over the fields for each term. [[query-string-min-should-match-cross]] ===== How `minimum_should_match` works for cross-field searches A `cross_fields` value in the `type` field indicates fields with the same analyzer are grouped together when the input is analyzed. [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- GET /_search { "query": { "query_string": { "fields": [ "title", "content" ], "query": "this OR that OR thus", "type": "cross_fields", "minimum_should_match": 2 } } } -------------------------------------------------- // CONSOLE The example above creates a boolean query: `(blended(terms:[field2:this, field1:this]) blended(terms:[field2:that, field1:that]) blended(terms:[field2:thus, field1:thus]))~2` that matches documents with at least two of the three per-term blended queries.