Queries and ranking

Use this page to choose a query and understand why results appear in their order.

Queries match indexed terms or values. Collectors retain a bounded result window, similarities calculate relevance scores, and deterministic tie-breaking resolves equal scores. Filters narrow candidates without contributing a score. Ranking profiles, rules, rescoring and cursor sessions compose only where their contracts support stable ordering.

Need	Start with
User-entered search text	Query parser or TermQuery after analysis
Exact identifier	TermQuery over a StringField
Prefix or autocomplete	Prefix query, n-gram analysis or suggester
Ordered words	Phrase or interval query
Tolerant spelling	Fuzzy query
Numeric/date bounds	Range query
Location	Geo query
Semantic similarity	Vector query

See also: Query types, Ranking profiles, and IndexSearcher.