Lucene Query Syntax of field with a space

Question

I am trying to perform two Lucene queries. The first one works. The second does not. My first query looks like this:

level:"dangerous"

My second query looks like this:

IP address:"11.22.333.444"

I'm not getting a query error. However, I know there are documents with the matching IP address. For that reason, I suspect the space between "IP" and "address" is causing the problem. However, I'm not an expert in Lucene. So, I'm not sure if I'm correct in that.

When I look at my result set using PostMan, I can see a document with a field that looks like this:

"IP address": "11.22.333.444"

Can someone please tell me if my query is correct? Or, if I'm missing something?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Yes, that space is the problem.

The space in a field name is allowable, but conflicts with query parser syntax. You are essentially running two subqueries combined as SHOULD clauses (ie, an OR):

• IP
• address:"11.22.333.444"

You can escape the space using a single slash before the space, like:

IP\ address:"11.22.333.444"