How to search on complex fields in Azure Cognitive Search - azure

Question

Consider the following model, where Address has nested property of City
{
"HotelId": "1",
"HotelName": "Secret Point Motel",
"Description": "Ideally located on the main commercial artery of the city in the heart of New York.",
"Tags": ["Free wifi", "on-site parking", "indoor pool", "continental breakfast"],
"Address": {
"StreetAddress": "677 5th Ave",
"City": "New York",
"StateProvince": "NY"
},
"Rooms": [
{
"Description": "Budget Room, 1 Queen Bed (Cityside)",
"RoomNumber": 1105,
"BaseRate": 96.99,
},
{
"Description": "Deluxe Room, 2 Double Beds (City View)",
"Type": "Deluxe Room",
"BaseRate": 150.99,
}
. . .
]
}
The model is indexed in Azure Cognitive Search as the following, where the Address is set as Edm.ComplexType
{
"name": "hotels",
"fields": [
{ "name": "HotelId", "type": "Edm.String", "key": true, "filterable": true },
{ "name": "HotelName", "type": "Edm.String", "searchable": true, "filterable": false },
{ "name": "Description", "type": "Edm.String", "searchable": true, "analyzer": "en.lucene" },
{ "name": "Address", "type": "Edm.ComplexType",
"fields": [
{ "name": "StreetAddress", "type": "Edm.String", "filterable": false, "sortable": false, "facetable": false, "searchable": true },
{ "name": "City", "type": "Edm.String", "searchable": true, "filterable": true, "sortable": true, "facetable": true },
{ "name": "StateProvince", "type": "Edm.String", "searchable": true, "filterable": true, "sortable": true, "facetable": true }
]
},
{ "name": "Rooms", "type": "Collection(Edm.ComplexType)",
"fields": [
{ "name": "Description", "type": "Edm.String", "searchable": true, "analyzer": "en.lucene" },
{ "name": "Type", "type": "Edm.String", "searchable": true },
{ "name": "BaseRate", "type": "Edm.Double", "filterable": true, "facetable": true }
]
}
]
}
Now I am trying to search on the data for City equals New York using the following queries, but none of them works
city eq 'new york' // return no result
address/city eq 'new york' // return error The property 'address/city' does not exist
address.city eq 'new york' // return error The property 'address.city' does not exist
So then how to search on Edm.ComplexType filed in Azure Cognitive Search?
N.B: I am using Azure Dotnet SDK (10.1.0)

Answer 1

The correct syntax is to define the OData expression in $filter clause. If you were using REST API, your $filter clause would be:
Address/City eq 'New York'
The reason your code is failing is because the actual field path is Address/City whereas you are specifying it as address/city. Once you use the proper field names, your code should work just fine.