---
title: Index and search analysis
description: Text analysis occurs at two times: The analyzer, or set of analysis rules, used at each time is called the index analyzer or search analyzer respectively...
url: https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/manage-data/data-store/text-analysis/index-search-analysis
products:
  - Elasticsearch
---

# Index and search analysis
Text analysis occurs at two times:
<definitions>
  <definition term="Index time">
    When a document is indexed, any [`text`](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/elasticsearch/tree/main/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/text) field values are analyzed.
  </definition>
  <definition term="Search time">
    When running a [full-text search](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/elasticsearch/tree/main/reference/query-languages/query-dsl/full-text-queries) on a `text` field, the query string (the text the user is searching for) is analyzed. Search time is also called *query time*.
    For more details on text analysis at search time, refer to [Text analysis during search](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/solutions/search/full-text/text-analysis-during-search).
  </definition>
</definitions>

The analyzer, or set of analysis rules, used at each time is called the *index analyzer* or *search analyzer* respectively.

## How the index and search analyzer work together

In most cases, the same analyzer should be used at index and search time. This ensures the values and query strings for a field are changed into the same form of tokens. In turn, this ensures the tokens match as expected during a search.
<dropdown title="Example">
  A document is indexed with the following value in a `text` field:
  ```text
  The QUICK brown foxes jumped over the dog!
  ```
  The index analyzer for the field converts the value into tokens and normalizes them. In this case, each of the tokens represents a word:
  ```text
  [ quick, brown, fox, jump, over, dog ]
  ```
  These tokens are then indexed.Later, a user searches the same `text` field for:
  ```text
  "Quick fox"
  ```
  The user expects this search to match the sentence indexed earlier, `The QUICK brown foxes jumped over the dog!`.However, the query string does not contain the exact words used in the document's original text:
  - `Quick` versus `QUICK`
  - `fox` versus `foxes`
  To account for this, the query string is analyzed using the same analyzer. This analyzer produces the following tokens:
  ```text
  [ quick, fox ]
  ```
  To execute the search, Elasticsearch compares these query string tokens to the tokens indexed in the `text` field.

  | Token   | Query string | `text` field |
  |---------|--------------|--------------|
  | `quick` | X            | X            |
  | `brown` |              | X            |
  | `fox`   | X            | X            |
  | `jump`  |              | X            |
  | `over`  |              | X            |
  | `dog`   |              | X            |
  Because the field value and query string were analyzed in the same way, they created similar tokens. The tokens `quick` and `fox` are exact matches. This means the search matches the document containing `"The QUICK brown foxes jumped over the dog!"`, just as the user expects.
</dropdown>


## When to use a different search analyzer

While less common, it sometimes makes sense to use different analyzers at index and search time. To enable this, Elasticsearch allows you to [specify a separate search analyzer](/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/manage-data/data-store/text-analysis/specify-an-analyzer#specify-search-analyzer).
Generally, a separate search analyzer should only be specified when using the same form of tokens for field values and query strings would create unexpected or irrelevant search matches.
<dropdown title="Example">
  Elasticsearch is used to create a search engine that matches only words that start with a provided prefix. For instance, a search for `tr` should return `tram` or `trope`—but never `taxi` or `bat`.A document is added to the search engine’s index; this document contains one such word in a `text` field:
  ```text
  "Apple"
  ```
  The index analyzer for the field converts the value into tokens and normalizes them. In this case, each of the tokens represents a potential prefix for the word:
  ```text
  [ a, ap, app, appl, apple]
  ```
  These tokens are then indexed.Later, a user searches the same `text` field for:
  ```text
  "appli"
  ```
  The user expects this search to match only words that start with `appli`, such as `appliance` or `application`. The search should not match `apple`.However, if the index analyzer is used to analyze this query string, it would produce the following tokens:
  ```text
  [ a, ap, app, appl, appli ]
  ```
  When Elasticsearch compares these query string tokens to the ones indexed for `apple`, it finds several matches.

  | Token   | `appli` | `apple` |
  |---------|---------|---------|
  | `a`     | X       | X       |
  | `ap`    | X       | X       |
  | `app`   | X       | X       |
  | `appl`  | X       | X       |
  | `appli` |         | X       |
  This means the search would erroneously match `apple`. Not only that, it would match any word starting with `a`.To fix this, you can specify a different search analyzer for query strings used on the `text` field.In this case, you could specify a search analyzer that produces a single token rather than a set of prefixes:
  ```text
  [ appli ]
  ```
  This query string token would only match tokens for words that start with `appli`, which better aligns with the user’s search expectations.
</dropdown>