_geoBoundingBox filter returns no results when lat and lng are indexed as strings

[martinmaillard]

Describe the bug

When indexing documents with a _geo key containing lat and lng as string values, the _geoBoundingBox filter never returns any resuls. Reindexing the same documents with lat and lng as float values solves the issue.

I'm reporting this as a bug because the documentation states that string values are valid for lat and lng.

When using JSON and NDJSON, _geo must contain an object with two keys: lat and lng. Both fields must contain either a floating point number or a string indicating, respectively, latitude and longitude:

Note that _geoRadius works as expected.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Index the following documents: [{"id": 1, "_geo": {"lng": "6", "lat": "46"}}, {"id": 2, "_geo": {"lng": 6, "lat": 46}]
2. Query the index with the following filter: {"filter": "_geoBoundingBox([47, 7], [44, 4])"}
3. Only the document with id=2 is returned

Expected behavior
Both documents should be returned

Meilisearch version:
Tested with 1.2 and 1.3

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Comment from the team:

This issue was an indexing issue. The fix will be shipped in a patch version which means you don't need a dump to use it.
For all the new documents you send, it'll take effect immediately BUT, if your database already contains geo documents with their coordinates as string, you won't be able to query them until you re-index them by removing and then adding again _geo as a faceted attribute (i.e.: removing it from both the sortable and filterable attributes).
You can also delete and send back all the affected documents if that's easier for you.

[irevoire]

Hey @martinmaillard.

It seems like you mixed up a bit the order of your latitude/longitude.

As you can see in the documentation, the _geoBoundingBox function must receive the latitude and then the longitude, i.e.: _geoBoundingBox([{lat}, {lng}], [{lat}, {lng}]).
And as stated later:

The first array indicates the geographic coordinates of the top right corner of the rectangular area. The second array indicates the coordinates of the bottom left corner of the rectangular area.

Following these indications, this means the top right corner should be expressed as [47, 7], and your bottom left corner as [44, 6].
Finally, for your documents, the final filter you wanted to send was this one: { "filter": "_geoBoundingBox([47,7], [44,6])" }.

[martinmaillard]

Hi @irevoire,

Sorry, I don't understand your message. Where did I mix up lat and lng? The filter you wrote looks exactly like mine, except it has a lng of 6 instead of 4, which shouldn't change anything in this case.

Am I missing something?

[irevoire]

Oops, yes, you’re right. Sorry, I totally misunderstood your issue 🤦

The bug is related to the fact that the _geoBoundingBox is kind of a hack around the filtering system of meilisearch.
But since the range doesn’t work on strings with the meilisearch filter, the _geoBoundingBox can't work with the strings either.
This issue is not trivial to fix.

[martinmaillard]

Ok, I see. Thanks for looking into it :)

Maybe the fix is to change the documentation of _geo to make it clear that lat and lng can't be strings at the moment. That would probably save time for some people.

[irevoire]

Hey @martinmaillard, just to keep you updated.
I chatted about this issue with the team, and we found a cool solution without any downside. It's implemented and will be released in the next patch version of meilisearch (probably by the end of the week or next week).
Also, I’ll update your initial message so it's easier for the rest of the team to follow what's going on!
Thanks for the report 🎉

[curquiza]

Fixed by #3986 without downside
Will be released today in v1.3.1
Thank for the report and the time, it's been a while we have issues like this and we try to understand the problem. Thank you! 🙏