Search analyzer

The search_analyzer mapping parameter specifies the analyzer to be used at search time for a text field. This allows the analyzer used for indexing to differ from the one used for search, offering greater control over how search terms are interpreted and matched.

By default, the same analyzer is used for both indexing and search. However, using a custom search_analyzer can be helpful when you want to apply looser or stricter matching rules during search, such as using stemming or removing stopwords only at search time. For more information and use cases, see Search analyzers.

Example

The following example creates a field that uses an edge_ngram_analyzer configured with an edge_ngram_tokenizer for indexing and a standard analyzer for search:

PUT /articles
{
  "settings": {
    "analysis": {
      "analyzer": {
        "edge_ngram_analyzer": {
          "tokenizer": "edge_ngram_tokenizer",
          "filter": ["lowercase"]
        }
      },
      "tokenizer": {
        "edge_ngram_tokenizer": {
          "type": "edge_ngram",
          "min_gram": 2,
          "max_gram": 10,
          "token_chars": ["letter", "digit"]
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "title": {
        "type": "text",
        "analyzer": "edge_ngram_analyzer",
        "search_analyzer": "standard"
      }
    }
  }
}

For a full explanation of how search analyzers work as well as more examples, see Search analyzers.