Searching for subsets of a list?

[JSGilliom]

[Timothy Jenney]

Hi, John!

 

Good question.

 

Currently, you can do such a search automatically using the [FUZZY] command. Just select the entire phrase and use shift-click to select the text you want to search. You can change the level of "fuzziness" by changing the number in the bracket (e.g. [FUZZY 1], [FUZZY 2], etc.).

 

We have had some requests to add a feature to Accordance that would allow for searching and sorting hits by relevance (like the current Google default searches). Your request would be neatly satisfied by such a feature, were it available. [i'm not promising anything, mind you...]

[David Lang]

John,

 

You can do this using a Construct window. In your search window, hit Tab to select the contents of the search entry box, then go to File-->New Construct-->Simple (or use the keyboard shortcut command-1) to open a new simple construct window. Drag a word element into the first column and enter the key words you want to be included. You can do that either by selecting the words in the dialog box that appears or you can click OK and then type the words directly into the Word element, separating them with commas. For my search, I entered "compassionate, gracious, anger, lovingkindness, truth" (without the quotes).

 

This word element will then find any verse which contains any one of these words. To specify that two or more of them must appear together, option-drag the Word element into the second column. It should now be copied so that it appears in both columns.

 

Now drag a WITHIN item into the area above the two columns and enter a proximity. I used 20. Click the FIND button and you'll get a list of verses which have at least two occurrences of these words.

 

You'll notice some instances where only one of the words is used, but it happens to be repeated. To exclude those verses, go back to your construct window and drag an AGREE item above the two columns. In the dialog box, check Word. Then drag a NOT item over the label of the AGREE item. You've now specified that these two words cannot be the same.

 

To specify that at least three of these words must be present, you can repeat the process for the third column. The easiest way to do that is to shift-click the WITHIN, AGREE, and second WORD items, then option-drag to copy all of them at once to the third column.

 

Hope this helps.

[JSGilliom]

Thank you for your replies. And thank you, David, for the explanation. It does help immensely!

 

(This brings to mind an idea ... what about making it possible to drag a "Phrase" element to the columns of a construct window? Then one could include a list of phrases in a similar way as you've shown above by carefully selecting words from the phrases ... )

 

Thank you, thank you for your help!

 

John

[Timothy Jenney]

Very nifty solution, David!