The query language query allows humans to describe complex queries using a simple syntax.
Plain terms without any other syntax are interpreted as a match query for the term in the default field. The default field is _all unless overridden in the index mapping.
Example: water will perform a Match Query for the term water.
Phrase queries can be accomplished by placing the phrase in quotes.
Example: "light beer" will peform a Match Phrase Query for the phrase light beer.
You can qualify the field for these searches by prefixing them with the name of the field separated by a colon.
Example: description:water will perform a Match Query for the term water, in the description field.
You can use regular expressions in addition to using terms by wrapping the expression in forward slashes (/).
Example: /light (beer|wine)/ will perform a regular expression against the terms in document.
The regular expressions can also be used with field scoping.
Example: description:/wat.*/
When your query string includes multiple items, by default these are placed into the SHOULD clause of a Boolean Query.
You can change this by prefixing your items with a + or ‘-’.
* ‘+’ Prefixing with plus places that item in the MUST portion of the boolean query.
* ‘-’ Prefixing with a minus places that item in the MUST NOT portion of the boolean query.
Example: +description:water -light beer will perform a Boolean Query that MUST satisfy the Match Query for the term water in the description field, MUST NOT satisfy the Match Query for the term light in the default field, and SHOULD satisfy the Match Query for the term beer in the default field. Result documents satisfying the SHOULD clause will score higher than those that do not.
You can influence the relative importance of the clauses by suffixing clauses with the ^ operator followed by a number.
Example: description:water name:water^5 will perform Match queries for water in both the name and description fields, but documents having the term in the name field will score higher.
You can perform numeric ranges by using the >, >=, <, and <= operators, followed by a numeric value.
Example: abv:>10 will perform an Numeric Range Query on the abv field for values greater than ten.
You can perform date range searches by using the >, >=, <, and <= operators, followed by a date value in quotes.
Example: created:>"2016-09-21" will perform an Date Range Query on the created field for values after September 21, 2016.
The following quoted string enumerates the characters which may be escaped:
"+-=&|><!(){}[]^\"~*?:\\/ "
NOTE: this list contains the space character.
In order to escape these characters, they are prefixed with the \ (backslash) character. In all cases, using the escaped version produces the character itself and is not interpreted by the lexer.
Example: my\ name will be interpreted as a single argument to a match query with the value “my name”.
Example: "contains a\" character" will be interpreted as a single argument to a phrase query with the value contains a " character.