=== Closer Is Better

Whereas a phrase query simply excludes documents that don't contain the exact query phrase, a proximity query—a ((("proximity matching", "proximity queries")))((("slop parameter", "proximity queries and")))phrase query where slop is greater than 0—incorporates the proximity of the query terms into the final relevance _score. By setting a high slop value like 50 or 100, you can exclude documents in which the words are really too far apart, but give a higher score to documents in which the words are closer together.

The following proximity query for quick dog matches both documents that contain the words quick and dog, but gives a higher score to the document((("relevance scores", "for proximity queries"))) in which the words are nearer to each other:

[source,js]

POST /my_index/my_type/_search { "query": { "match_phrase": { "title": { "query": "quick dog", "slop": 50 <1> } } }

}

// SENSE: 120_Proximity_Matching/20_Scoring.json

<1> Note the high slop value.

[source,js]

{ "hits": [ { "_id": "3", "_score": 0.75, <1> "_source": { "title": "The quick brown fox jumps over the quick dog" } }, { "_id": "2", "_score": 0.28347334, <2> "_source": { "title": "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" } } ]

}

<1> Higher score because quick and dog are close together

<2> Lower score because quick and dog are further apart