[[query-dsl-intervals-query]] === Intervals query An `intervals` query allows fine-grained control over the order and proximity of matching terms. Matching rules are constructed from a small set of definitions, and the rules are then applied to terms from a particular `field`. The definitions produce sequences of minimal intervals that span terms in a body of text. These intervals can be further combined and filtered by parent sources. The example below will search for the phrase `my favourite food` appearing before the terms `hot` and `water` or `cold` and `porridge` in any order, in the field `my_text` [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- POST _search { "query": { "intervals" : { "my_text" : { "all_of" : { "ordered" : true, "intervals" : [ { "match" : { "query" : "my favourite food", "max_gaps" : 0, "ordered" : true } }, { "any_of" : { "intervals" : [ { "match" : { "query" : "hot water" } }, { "match" : { "query" : "cold porridge" } } ] } } ] }, "boost" : 2.0, "_name" : "favourite_food" } } } } -------------------------------------------------- // CONSOLE In the above example, the text `my favourite food is cold porridge` would match because the two intervals matching `my favourite food` and `cold porridge` appear in the correct order, but the text `when it's cold my favourite food is porridge` would not match, because the interval matching `cold porridge` starts before the interval matching `my favourite food`. [[intervals-match]] ==== `match` The `match` rule matches analyzed text, and takes the following parameters: [horizontal] `query`:: The text to match. `max_gaps`:: Specify a maximum number of gaps between the terms in the text. Terms that appear further apart than this will not match. If unspecified, or set to -1, then there is no width restriction on the match. If set to 0 then the terms must appear next to each other. `ordered`:: Whether or not the terms must appear in their specified order. Defaults to `false` `analyzer`:: Which analyzer should be used to analyze terms in the `query`. By default, the search analyzer of the top-level field will be used. `filter`:: An optional <> [[intervals-all_of]] ==== `all_of` `all_of` returns returns matches that span a combination of other rules. [horizontal] `intervals`:: An array of rules to combine. All rules must produce a match in a document for the overall source to match. `max_gaps`:: Specify a maximum number of gaps between the rules. Combinations that match across a distance greater than this will not match. If set to -1 or unspecified, there is no restriction on this distance. If set to 0, then the matches produced by the rules must all appear immediately next to each other. `ordered`:: Whether the intervals produced by the rules should appear in the order in which they are specified. Defaults to `false` `filter`:: An optional <> [[intervals-any_of]] ==== `any_of` The `any_of` rule emits intervals produced by any of its sub-rules. [horizontal] `intervals`:: An array of rules to match `filter`:: An optional <> [[interval_filter]] ==== filters You can filter intervals produced by any rules by their relation to the intervals produced by another rule. The following example will return documents that have the words `hot` and `porridge` within 10 positions of each other, without the word `salty` in between: [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- POST _search { "query": { "intervals" : { "my_text" : { "match" : { "query" : "hot porridge", "max_gaps" : 10, "filter" : { "not_containing" : { "match" : { "query" : "salty" } } } } } } } } -------------------------------------------------- // CONSOLE The following filters are available: [horizontal] `containing`:: Produces intervals that contain an interval from the filter rule `contained_by`:: Produces intervals that are contained by an interval from the filter rule `not_containing`:: Produces intervals that do not contain an interval from the filter rule `not_contained_by`:: Produces intervals that are not contained by an interval from the filter rule `not_overlapping`:: Produces intervals that do not overlap with an interval from the filter rule [[interval-script-filter]] ==== Script filters You can also filter intervals based on their start position, end position and internal gap count, using a script. The script has access to an `interval` variable, with `start`, `end` and `gaps` methods: [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- POST _search { "query": { "intervals" : { "my_text" : { "match" : { "query" : "hot porridge", "filter" : { "script" : { "source" : "interval.start > 10 && interval.end < 20 && interval.gaps == 0" } } } } } } } -------------------------------------------------- // CONSOLE [[interval-minimization]] ==== Minimization The intervals query always minimizes intervals, to ensure that queries can run in linear time. This can sometimes cause surprising results, particularly when using `max_gaps` restrictions or filters. For example, take the following query, searching for `salty` contained within the phrase `hot porridge`: [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- POST _search { "query": { "intervals" : { "my_text" : { "match" : { "query" : "salty", "filter" : { "contained_by" : { "match" : { "query" : "hot porridge" } } } } } } } } -------------------------------------------------- // CONSOLE This query will *not* match a document containing the phrase `hot porridge is salty porridge`, because the intervals returned by the match query for `hot porridge` only cover the initial two terms in this document, and these do not overlap the intervals covering `salty`. Another restriction to be aware of is the case of `any_of` rules that contain sub-rules which overlap. In particular, if one of the rules is a strict prefix of the other, then the longer rule will never be matched, which can cause surprises when used in combination with `max_gaps`. Consider the following query, searching for `the` immediately followed by `big` or `big bad`, immediately followed by `wolf`: [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- POST _search { "query": { "intervals" : { "my_text" : { "all_of" : { "intervals" : [ { "match" : { "query" : "the" } }, { "any_of" : { "intervals" : [ { "match" : { "query" : "big" } }, { "match" : { "query" : "big bad" } } ] } }, { "match" : { "query" : "wolf" } } ], "max_gaps" : 0, "ordered" : true } } } } } -------------------------------------------------- // CONSOLE Counter-intuitively, this query *will not* match the document `the big bad wolf`, because the `any_of` rule in the middle will only produce intervals for `big` - intervals for `big bad` being longer than those for `big`, while starting at the same position, and so being minimized away. In these cases, it's better to rewrite the query so that all of the options are explicitly laid out at the top level: [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- POST _search { "query": { "intervals" : { "my_text" : { "any_of" : { "intervals" : [ { "match" : { "query" : "the big bad wolf", "ordered" : true, "max_gaps" : 0 } }, { "match" : { "query" : "the big wolf", "ordered" : true, "max_gaps" : 0 } } ] } } } } } -------------------------------------------------- // CONSOLE