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Elasticsearch Guide [7.7] » Query DSL » Term-level queries » Prefix query
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Prefix queryedit

Returns documents that contain a specific prefix in a provided field.

Example requestedit

The following search returns documents where the user field contains a term that begins with ki.

GET /_search
{
    "query": {
        "prefix": {
            "user": {
                "value": "ki"
            }
        }
    }
}

Top-level parameters for prefixedit

<field>
(Required, object) Field you wish to search.

Parameters for <field>edit

value
(Required, string) Beginning characters of terms you wish to find in the provided <field>.
rewrite
(Optional, string) Method used to rewrite the query. For valid values and more information, see the rewrite parameter.

Notesedit

Short request exampleedit

You can simplify the prefix query syntax by combining the <field> and value parameters. For example:

GET /_search
{
    "query": {
        "prefix" : { "user" : "ki" }
    }
}

Speed up prefix queriesedit

You can speed up prefix queries using the index_prefixes mapping parameter. If enabled, Elasticsearch indexes prefixes between 2 and 5 characters in a separate field. This lets Elasticsearch run prefix queries more efficiently at the cost of a larger index.

Allow expensive queriesedit

Prefix queries will not be executed if search.allow_expensive_queries is set to false. However, if index_prefixes are enabled, an optimised query is built which is not considered slow, and will be executed in spite of this setting.

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