Term, Terms, Prefix, Exists, and Match Queries

The JSON DSL is the primary query format in these docs. Each section also shows the equivalent lower-level TypeScript query class.

Term Query

Exact term lookup does not analyze the input for you.

{
  "query": {
    "term": {
      "tags": "aggregation"
    }
  }
}

Equivalent internal TypeScript API:

import { TermQuery } from "@tryformation/querylight-ts";

const query = new TermQuery({ field: "tags", text: "aggregation" });

Terms Query

Exact terms lookup is the any-of variant for faceting and filters.

{
  "query": {
    "terms": {
      "tags": ["aggregation", "highlighting"]
    }
  }
}

Equivalent internal TypeScript API:

import { TermsQuery } from "@tryformation/querylight-ts";

const query = new TermsQuery({ field: "tags", terms: ["aggregation", "highlighting"] });

Prefix Query

prefix lookup expands against the field trie and returns documents containing the matching indexed terms.

It is useful for autocomplete-style retrieval when you want prefix lookup to be explicit instead of toggling prefixMatch on MatchQuery.

{
  "query": {
    "prefix": {
      "title": "agg"
    }
  }
}

Equivalent internal TypeScript API:

import { PrefixQuery } from "@tryformation/querylight-ts";

const query = new PrefixQuery({ field: "title", prefix: "agg" });

Exists Query

exists filters documents that have at least one stored value for a field.

{
  "query": {
    "exists": {
      "field": "location"
    }
  }
}

Equivalent internal TypeScript API:

import { ExistsQuery } from "@tryformation/querylight-ts";

const query = new ExistsQuery({ field: "location" });

Match Query

match analyzes the input text and supports both and and or logic. When prefix_match is true, each analyzed query term can expand through the field trie before document scoring.

{
  "query": {
    "match": {
      "body": {
        "query": "vector search",
        "operator": "and",
        "boost": 2
      }
    }
  }
}

{
  "query": {
    "match": {
      "title": {
        "query": "agg",
        "operator": "or",
        "prefix_match": true
      }
    }
  }
}

Equivalent internal TypeScript API:

import { MatchQuery, OP } from "@tryformation/querylight-ts";

const bodyQuery = new MatchQuery({ field: "body", text: "vector search", operation: OP.AND, boost: 2.0 });
const prefixQuery = new MatchQuery({ field: "title", text: "agg", operation: OP.OR, prefixMatch: true });

Multi Match Query

multi_match lets terms match across several fields instead of forcing one field to satisfy the whole query.

{
  "query": {
    "multi_match": {
      "fields": ["title", "body"],
      "query": "vector search"
    }
  }
}

Equivalent internal TypeScript API:

import { MultiMatchQuery } from "@tryformation/querylight-ts";

const query = new MultiMatchQuery({ fields: ["title", "body"], text: "vector search" });

When to prefer which

• Use TermQuery for exact facet values.
• Use TermsQuery for exact any-of filters.
• Use PrefixQuery for explicit autocomplete-style matching.
• Use ExistsQuery when optional metadata should become a filter.
• Use MatchQuery for full text.
• Use MultiMatchQuery when query terms may be spread across several fields.
• Turn on prefixMatch when you want partial token lookup against known indexed terms instead of exact analyzed terms only.

Learn more

• Trie-Backed Prefix Expansion
• Trie on Wikipedia