elasticsearch/docs/reference/query-languages/sql/sql-functions-search.md

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mapped_pages:

• https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/sql-functions-search.html ---

Full-text search functions [sql-functions-search]

Search functions should be used when performing full-text search, namely when the MATCH or QUERY predicates are being used. Outside a, so-called, search context, these functions will return default values such as 0 or NULL.

Elasticsearch SQL optimizes all queries executed against {{es}} depending on the scoring needs. Using track_scores on the search request or _doc sorting that disables scores calculation, Elasticsearch SQL instructs {{es}} not to compute scores when these are not needed. For example, every time a SCORE() function is encountered in the SQL query, the scores are computed.

MATCH [sql-functions-search-match]

MATCH(
    field_exp,   <1>
    constant_exp <2>
    [, options]) <3>

Input:

1. field(s) to match
2. matching text
3. additional parameters; optional

Description: A full-text search option, in the form of a predicate, available in Elasticsearch SQL that gives the user control over powerful match and multi_match {{es}} queries.

The first parameter is the field or fields to match against. In case it receives one value only, Elasticsearch SQL will use a match query to perform the search:

SELECT author, name FROM library WHERE MATCH(author, 'frank');

    author     |       name
---------------+-------------------
Frank Herbert  |Dune
Frank Herbert  |Dune Messiah
Frank Herbert  |Children of Dune
Frank Herbert  |God Emperor of Dune

However, it can also receive a list of fields and their corresponding optional boost value. In this case, Elasticsearch SQL will use a multi_match query to match the documents:

SELECT author, name, SCORE() FROM library WHERE MATCH('author^2,name^5', 'frank dune');

    author     |       name        |    SCORE()
---------------+-------------------+---------------
Frank Herbert  |Dune               |11.443176
Frank Herbert  |Dune Messiah       |9.446629
Frank Herbert  |Children of Dune   |8.043278
Frank Herbert  |God Emperor of Dune|7.0029488

::::{note} The multi_match query in {{es}} has the option of per-field boosting that gives preferential weight (in terms of scoring) to fields being searched in, using the ^ character. In the example above, the name field has a greater weight in the final score than the author field when searching for frank dune text in both of them. ::::

Both options above can be used in combination with the optional third parameter of the MATCH() predicate, where one can specify additional configuration parameters (separated by semicolon ;) for either match or multi_match queries. For example:

SELECT author, name, SCORE() FROM library WHERE MATCH(name, 'to the star', 'operator=OR;fuzziness=AUTO:1,5;minimum_should_match=1')
ORDER BY SCORE() DESC LIMIT 2;

     author      |                name                |    SCORE()
-----------------+------------------------------------+---------------
Douglas Adams    |The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|3.1756816
Peter F. Hamilton|Pandora's Star                      |3.0997515

::::{note} The allowed optional parameters for a single-field MATCH() variant (for the match {{es}} query) are: analyzer, auto_generate_synonyms_phrase_query, lenient, fuzziness, fuzzy_transpositions, fuzzy_rewrite, minimum_should_match, operator, max_expansions, prefix_length. ::::

::::{note} The allowed optional parameters for a multi-field MATCH() variant (for the multi_match {{es}} query) are: analyzer, auto_generate_synonyms_phrase_query, lenient, fuzziness, fuzzy_transpositions, fuzzy_rewrite, minimum_should_match, operator, max_expansions, prefix_length, slop, tie_breaker, type. ::::

QUERY [sql-functions-search-query]

QUERY(
    constant_exp <1>
    [, options]) <2>

Input:

1. query text
2. additional parameters; optional

Description: Just like MATCH, QUERY is a full-text search predicate that gives the user control over the query_string query in {{es}}.

The first parameter is basically the input that will be passed as is to the query_string query, which means that anything that query_string accepts in its query field can be used here as well:

SELECT author, name, SCORE() FROM library WHERE QUERY('name:dune');

    author     |       name        |    SCORE()
---------------+-------------------+---------------
Frank Herbert  |Dune               |2.2886353
Frank Herbert  |Dune Messiah       |1.8893257
Frank Herbert  |Children of Dune   |1.6086556
Frank Herbert  |God Emperor of Dune|1.4005898

A more advanced example, showing more of the features that query_string supports, of course possible with Elasticsearch SQL:

SELECT author, name, page_count, SCORE() FROM library WHERE QUERY('_exists_:"author" AND page_count:>200 AND (name:/star.*/ OR name:duna~)');

      author      |       name        |  page_count   |    SCORE()
------------------+-------------------+---------------+---------------
Frank Herbert     |Dune               |604            |3.7164764
Frank Herbert     |Dune Messiah       |331            |3.4169943
Frank Herbert     |Children of Dune   |408            |3.2064917
Frank Herbert     |God Emperor of Dune|454            |3.0504425
Peter F. Hamilton |Pandora's Star     |768            |3.0
Robert A. Heinlein|Starship Troopers  |335            |3.0

The query above uses the _exists_ query to select documents that have values in the author field, a range query for page_count and regex and fuzziness queries for the name field.

If one needs to customize various configuration options that query_string exposes, this can be done using the second optional parameter. Multiple settings can be specified separated by a semicolon ;:

SELECT author, name, SCORE() FROM library WHERE QUERY('dune god', 'default_operator=and;default_field=name');

    author     |       name        |    SCORE()
---------------+-------------------+---------------
Frank Herbert  |God Emperor of Dune|3.6984892

::::{note} The allowed optional parameters for QUERY() are: allow_leading_wildcard, analyze_wildcard, analyzer, auto_generate_synonyms_phrase_query, default_field, default_operator, enable_position_increments, escape, fuzziness, fuzzy_max_expansions, fuzzy_prefix_length, fuzzy_rewrite, fuzzy_transpositions, lenient, max_determinized_states, minimum_should_match, phrase_slop, rewrite, quote_analyzer, quote_field_suffix, tie_breaker, time_zone, type. ::::

SCORE [sql-functions-search-score]

SCORE()

Input: none

Output: double numeric value

Description: Returns the relevance of a given input to the executed query. The higher score, the more relevant the data.

::::{note} When doing multiple text queries in the WHERE clause then, their scores will be combined using the same rules as {{es}}'s bool query. ::::

Typically SCORE is used for ordering the results of a query based on their relevance:

SELECT SCORE(), * FROM library WHERE MATCH(name, 'dune') ORDER BY SCORE() DESC;

    SCORE()    |    author     |       name        |  page_count   |    release_date
---------------+---------------+-------------------+---------------+--------------------
2.2886353      |Frank Herbert  |Dune               |604            |1965-06-01T00:00:00Z
1.8893257      |Frank Herbert  |Dune Messiah       |331            |1969-10-15T00:00:00Z
1.6086556      |Frank Herbert  |Children of Dune   |408            |1976-04-21T00:00:00Z
1.4005898      |Frank Herbert  |God Emperor of Dune|454            |1981-05-28T00:00:00Z

However, it is perfectly fine to return the score without sorting by it:

SELECT SCORE() AS score, name, release_date FROM library WHERE QUERY('dune') ORDER BY YEAR(release_date) DESC;

     score     |       name        |    release_date
---------------+-------------------+--------------------
1.4005898      |God Emperor of Dune|1981-05-28T00:00:00Z
1.6086556      |Children of Dune   |1976-04-21T00:00:00Z
1.8893257      |Dune Messiah       |1969-10-15T00:00:00Z
2.2886353      |Dune               |1965-06-01T00:00:00Z