Span near query

The span_near query matches spans that are near one another. You can specify how far apart the spans can be and whether they need to appear in a specific order.

For example, you can use the span_near query to:

• Find terms that appear within a certain distance of each other.
• Match phrases in which words appear in a specific order.
• Find related concepts that appear close to each other in text.

Example

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

The following query searches for any forms of “sleeve” and “long” appearing next to each other, in any order:

GET /clothing/_search
{
  "query": {
    "span_near": {
      "clauses": [
        {
          "span_term": {
            "description.stemmed": "sleev"
          }
        },
        {
          "span_term": {
            "description.stemmed": "long"
          }
        }
      ],
      "slop": 1,
      "in_order": false
    }
  }
}

The query matches documents 1 (“Long-sleeved…”) and 2 (“…long fluttered sleeves…”). In document 1, the words are next to each other, while in document 2, they are within the specified slop distance of 1 (there is 1 word between them).

{
  "took": 3,
  "timed_out": false,
  "_shards": {
    "total": 1,
    "successful": 1,
    "skipped": 0,
    "failed": 0
  },
  "hits": {
    "total": {
      "value": 2,
      "relation": "eq"
    },
    "max_score": 0.36496973,
    "hits": [
      {
        "_index": "clothing",
        "_id": "1",
        "_score": 0.36496973,
        "_source": {
          "description": "Long-sleeved dress shirt with a formal collar and button cuffs. "
        }
      },
      {
        "_index": "clothing",
        "_id": "4",
        "_score": 0.25312424,
        "_source": {
          "description": "A set of two midi silk shirt dresses with long fluttered sleeves in black. "
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}