[[query-dsl-simple-query-string-query]] === Simple Query String Query A query that uses the SimpleQueryParser to parse its context. Unlike the regular `query_string` query, the `simple_query_string` query will never throw an exception, and discards invalid parts of the query. Here is an example: [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- { "simple_query_string" : { "query": "\"fried eggs\" +(eggplant | potato) -frittata", "analyzer": "snowball", "fields": ["body^5","_all"], "default_operator": "and" } } -------------------------------------------------- The `simple_query_string` top level parameters include: [cols="<,<",options="header",] |======================================================================= |Parameter |Description |`query` |The actual query to be parsed. See below for syntax. |`fields` |The fields to perform the parsed query against. Defaults to the `index.query.default_field` index settings, which in turn defaults to `_all`. |`default_operator` |The default operator used if no explicit operator is specified. For example, with a default operator of `OR`, the query `capital of Hungary` is translated to `capital OR of OR Hungary`, and with default operator of `AND`, the same query is translated to `capital AND of AND Hungary`. The default value is `OR`. |`analyzer` |The analyzer used to analyze each term of the query when creating composite queries. |`flags` |Flags specifying which features of the `simple_query_string` to enable. Defaults to `ALL`. |`lowercase_expanded_terms` | Whether terms of prefix and fuzzy queries should be automatically lower-cased or not (since they are not analyzed). Defaults to `true`. |`analyze_wildcard` | Whether terms of prefix queries should be automatically analyzed or not. If `true` a best effort will be made to analyze the prefix. However, some analyzers will be not able to provide a meaningful results based just on the prefix of a term. Defaults to `false`. |`locale` | Locale that should be used for string conversions. Defaults to `ROOT`. |`lenient` | If set to `true` will cause format based failures (like providing text to a numeric field) to be ignored. |`minimum_should_match` | The minimum number of clauses that must match for a document to be returned. See the <<query-dsl-minimum-should-match,`minimum_should_match`>> documentation for the full list of options. |======================================================================= [float] ===== Simple Query String Syntax The `simple_query_string` supports the following special characters: * `+` signifies AND operation * `|` signifies OR operation * `-` negates a single token * `"` wraps a number of tokens to signify a phrase for searching * `*` at the end of a term signifies a prefix query * `(` and `)` signify precedence * `~N` after a word signifies edit distance (fuzziness) * `~N` after a phrase signifies slop amount In order to search for any of these special characters, they will need to be escaped with `\`. [float] ==== Default Field When not explicitly specifying the field to search on in the query string syntax, the `index.query.default_field` will be used to derive which field to search on. It defaults to `_all` field. So, if `_all` field is disabled, it might make sense to change it to set a different default field. [float] ==== Multi Field 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] -------------------------------------------------- { "simple_query_string" : { "fields" : ["content", "name.*^5"], "query" : "foo bar baz" } } -------------------------------------------------- [float] ==== Flags `simple_query_string` support multiple flags to specify which parsing features should be enabled. It is specified as a `|`-delimited string with the `flags` parameter: [source,js] -------------------------------------------------- { "simple_query_string" : { "query" : "foo | bar + baz*", "flags" : "OR|AND|PREFIX" } } -------------------------------------------------- The available flags are: `ALL`, `NONE`, `AND`, `OR`, `NOT`, `PREFIX`, `PHRASE`, `PRECEDENCE`, `ESCAPE`, `WHITESPACE`, `FUZZY`, `NEAR`, and `SLOP`.