Match Boolean prefix query

The match_bool_prefix query analyzes the provided search string and creates a Boolean query from the string’s terms. It uses every term except the last term as a whole word for matching. The last term is used as a prefix. The match_bool_prefix query returns documents that contain either the whole-word terms or terms that start with the prefix term, in any order.

The following example shows a basic match_bool_prefix query:

GET _search
{
  "query": {
    "match_bool_prefix": {
      "title": "the wind"
    }
  }
}

copy

To pass additional parameters, you can use the expanded syntax:

GET _search
{
  "query": {
    "match_bool_prefix": {
      "title": {
        "query": "the wind",
        "analyzer": "stop"
      }
    }
  }
}

copy

Example

For example, consider an index with the following documents:

PUT testindex/_doc/1
{
  "title": "The wind rises"
}

copy

PUT testindex/_doc/2
{
  "title": "Gone with the wind"
}

copy

The following match_bool_prefix query searches for the whole word rises and the words that start with wi, in any order:

GET testindex/_search
{
  "query": {
    "match_bool_prefix": {
      "title": "rises wi"
    }
  }
}

copy

The preceding query is equivalent to the following Boolean query:

GET testindex/_search
{
  "query": {
    "bool" : {
      "should": [
        { "term": { "title": "rises" }},
        { "prefix": { "title": "wi"}}
      ]
    }
  }
}

The response contains both documents:

Response

{
  "took": 15,
  "timed_out": false,
  "_shards": {
    "total": 1,
    "successful": 1,
    "skipped": 0,
    "failed": 0
  },
  "hits": {
    "total": {
      "value": 2,
      "relation": "eq"
    },
    "max_score": 1.73617,
    "hits": [
      {
        "_index": "testindex",
        "_id": "1",
        "_score": 1.73617,
        "_source": {
          "title": "The wind rises"
        }
      },
      {
        "_index": "testindex",
        "_id": "2",
        "_score": 1,
        "_source": {
          "title": "Gone with the wind"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

The match_bool_prefix and match_phrase_prefix queries

The match_bool_prefix query matches terms in any position, while the match_phrase_prefix query matches terms as a whole phrase. To illustrate the difference, once again consider the match_bool_prefix query from the preceding section:

GET testindex/_search
{
  "query": {
    "match_bool_prefix": {
      "title": "rises wi"
    }
  }
}

copy

Both The wind rises and Gone with the wind match the search terms, so the query returns both documents.

Now run a match_phrase_prefix query on the same index:

GET testindex/_search
{
  "query": {
    "match_phrase_prefix": {
      "title": "rises wi"
    }
  }
}

copy

The response returns no documents because none of the documents contain a phrase rises wi in the specified order.

Analyzer

By default, when you run a query on a text field, the search text is analyzed using the index analyzer associated with the field. You can specify a different search analyzer in the analyzer parameter:

GET testindex/_search
{
  "query": {
    "match_bool_prefix": {
      "title": {
        "query": "rise the wi",
        "analyzer": "stop"
      }
    }
  }
}

copy

Parameters

The query accepts the name of the field (<field>) as a top-level parameter:

GET _search
{
  "query": {
    "match_bool_prefix": {
      "<field>": {
        "query": "text to search for",
        ... 
      }
    }
  }
}

copy

The <field> accepts the following parameters. All parameters except query are optional.

The fuzziness, fuzzy_transpositions, fuzzy_rewrite, max_expansions, and prefix_length parameters can be applied to the term subqueries constructed for all terms except the final term. They do not have any effect on the prefix query constructed for the final term.