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Span multi-term query

The span_multi query allows you to wrap a multi-term query (like wildcard, fuzzy, prefix, range, or regexp) as a span query. This enables you to use these more flexible matching queries within other span queries.

For example, you can use the span_multi query to:

• Find words with common prefixes near other terms.
• Match fuzzy variations of words within spans.
• Use regular expressions in span queries.

span_multi queries can potentially match many terms. To avoid excessive memory usage, you can:

• Set the rewrite parameter for the multi-term query.
• Use the top_terms_* rewrite method.
• Consider enabling the index_prefixes option for the text field if you use span_multi only for a prefix query. This automatically rewrites any prefix query on the field into a single-term query that matches the indexed prefix.

Example

To try the examples in this section, complete the setup steps.

The span_multi query uses the following syntax to wrap the prefix query:

"span_multi": {
  "match": {
    "prefix": {
      "description": {
        "value": "flutter"
      }
    }
  }
}

The following query searches for words starting with “dress” near any form of “sleeve” within at most 5 words of each other:

GET /clothing/_search
{
  "query": {
    "span_near": {
      "clauses": [
        {
          "span_multi": {
            "match": {
              "prefix": {
                "description": {
                  "value": "dress"
                }
              }
            }
          }
        },
        {
          "field_masking_span": {
            "query": {
              "span_term": {
                "description.stemmed": "sleev"
              }
            },
            "field": "description"
          }
        }
      ],
      "slop": 5,
      "in_order": false
    }
  }
}

The query matches documents 1 (“Long-sleeved dress…”) and 4 (“…dresses with long fluttered sleeves…”) because “dress” and “long” occur within the maximum distance in both documents.

{
  "took": 5,
  "timed_out": false,
  "_shards": {
    "total": 1,
    "successful": 1,
    "skipped": 0,
    "failed": 0
  },
  "hits": {
    "total": {
      "value": 2,
      "relation": "eq"
    },
    "max_score": 1.7590723,
    "hits": [
      {
        "_index": "clothing",
        "_id": "1",
        "_score": 1.7590723,
        "_source": {
          "description": "Long-sleeved dress shirt with a formal collar and button cuffs. "
        }
      },
      {
        "_index": "clothing",
        "_id": "4",
        "_score": 0.84792376,
        "_source": {
          "description": "A set of two midi silk shirt dresses with long fluttered sleeves in black. "
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Parameters

The following table lists all top-level parameters supported by span_multi queries. All parameters are required.