Why fuzzy query returns a match but query with fuzziness doesn't on the same input? - elasticsearch

Question

I created the following index in Elasticsearch:
PUT /my-index
{
"settings": {
"analysis": {
"analyzer": {
"my_analyzer": {
"tokenizer": "whitespace",
"filter": ["lowercase", "3_5_edgegrams"]
}
},
"filter": {
"3_5_edgegrams": {
"type": "edge_ngram",
"min_gram": 3,
"max_gram": 10
}
}
}
},
"mappings": {
"properties": {
"name": {
"type": "text",
"analyzer": "my_analyzer"
}
}
}
}
Then I inserted the following document:
{
"name": "Nuvus Gro Corp"
}
When I make the following query (let's call it fuzzy_query):
GET /my-index/_search
{
"query": {
"fuzzy": {
"name": {
"value": "qnuv"
}
}
}
}
I get a match for the above document.
When I make the query (let's call the query match_with_fuzziness):
GET /my-index/_search
{
"query": {
"match": {
"name": {
"query": "qnuv",
"fuzziness": "AUTO"
}
}
}
}
I don't get a match. If I make the following query:
GET /my-index/_search
{
"query": {
"match": {
"name": {
"query": "nuvq",
"fuzziness": "AUTO"
}
}
}
}
I again get a match. I don't understand why when I make the match_with_fuzziness query I don't get any matches.
EDIT: I analyzed the queries with Kibana Profiler and according to the profiler match_with_fuzziness is a SynonymQuery Synonym(name:qnu name:qnuv) query while fuzzy_query is a BoostQuery (name:nuv)^0.6666666

Answer 1

Very similar problem to the one explained in your other question.
The problem is that you haven't specified a specific search_analyzer, so at search time qnuv and nuvq also get analyzed by my_analyzer and edge-ngramed as well, hence the match you're receiving.
If we check the first query, since you're using the fuzzy query, qnuv (the search term) will match nuv (the first indexed edge-ngramed token) with a distance of 1 (i.e. the first q is "tolerated"), which is what the fuzzy query does by default (with "fuzziness: AUTO")
In the third query, nuv (the first edge-ngramed token of the search term) will match nuv (the first indexed edge-ngramed token).
The case of the second query is a bit special and I'm referencing below how the fuzziness parameter works in the context of match queries
Fuzzy matching is not applied to terms with synonyms or in cases where the analysis process produces multiple tokens at the same position. Under the hood these terms are expanded to a special synonym query that blends term frequencies, which does not support fuzzy expansion.
The part in bold is what applies to your case. Since the search term qnuv is analyzed by my_analyzer, it produces the two tokens qnu and qnuv at the same position and that does not support fuzzy matching.
You need to change your mapping to this one instead and it will work the way you expect, i.e. all three queries will return your document:
"mappings": {
"properties": {
"name": {
"type": "text",
"analyzer": "my_analyzer",
"search_analyzer": "standard" <---- add this line
}
}
}