Defining Custom Search Ranges

[Anthony Pyles]

I am working in Psalms and wanted to do a quick search to see which Psalms have a Davidic superscription. I'm sure the nearest commentary would give me a list, but I thought Accordance would be faster. So I searched Psalms for לדוד. Lo and behold, that construction is not limited to the superscriptions!

 

Now, if this was all I ever wanted to do, it would only take a moment to weed out results that were not from the first verse of each psalm. But I have a persistent interest in the superscriptions generally, so I thought it would be worth my while to define a custom range. I loathed the idea of typing Ps 1.1, 2.1, etc. on up to 150.1, so I used a spreadsheet, put it through a word processor, got it as plain text, and tried to copy/paste. No go.

 

So I typed it all out. No go.

 

Apparently a custom range is limited to around 500 characters, and that range takes over 700 characters. Who knew? So it looks like I may be defining a custom range for the superscriptions for each of the five books of the Psalter, and looking for a way to combine the results.

 

Does anyone out there have suggestions for easier/more efficient ways to go about this, both specifically on the superscriptions, but also more generally on setting up a very specific but very lengthy custom range?

 

Many thanks!

Tony Pyles

[Anon]

I am working in Psalms and wanted to do a quick search to see which Psalms have a Davidic superscription. I'm sure the nearest commentary would give me a list, but I thought Accordance would be faster. So I searched Psalms for לדוד. Lo and behold, that construction is not limited to the superscriptions!

 

Now, if this was all I ever wanted to do, it would only take a moment to weed out results that were not from the first verse of each psalm. But I have a persistent interest in the superscriptions generally, so I thought it would be worth my while to define a custom range. I loathed the idea of typing Ps 1.1, 2.1, etc. on up to 150.1, so I used a spreadsheet, put it through a word processor, got it as plain text, and tried to copy/paste. No go.

 

So I typed it all out. No go.

 

Apparently a custom range is limited to around 500 characters, and that range takes over 700 characters. Who knew? So it looks like I may be defining a custom range for the superscriptions for each of the five books of the Psalter, and looking for a way to combine the results.

 

Does anyone out there have suggestions for easier/more efficient ways to go about this, both specifically on the superscriptions, but also more generally on setting up a very specific but very lengthy custom range?

 

Many thanks!

Tony Pyles

 

Tony:

 

Your on the right track. Often times, I've found that it's best to list out the criteria of your search. Once you have the criteria listed out, it's helpful to think through the methodology of Accordance Search Symbols and Commands, so as to build your search.

 

So, from what I can gather you are desiring this:

 

Find all the superscriptions (i.e., the first verse) within the Psalter that contain the lemma דוד.

 

Let's parse this out with Accordance Search methodology in mind. The first element is the lemma דוד, easy enough. As you noticed if you run a search on the lemma, our results are based on the entire Hebrew Bible. Thus, we need to delimit the search in three ways. The first way we can delimit this search is to restrict the search based on the FIELD command. Since we are looking for a superscription, we can say that we want דוד to occur within the first 10 words of the first chapter, which is our second delimiter in our search. Our search would look like this: [FIELD Begin] <WITHIN 10 Words> דוד. Now, we just need to restrict our search to Psalms. We can do this either by changing the "Search in every verse of [All text]" to Search in every verse of Psalms". Psalms here being a new Range that you can create. Another way is to use the Range Command.

 

Your search syntax would thus be:

 

[Range Ps] <AND> [Field Begin] <WITHIN 10 Words> דוד.

 

or

 

Set pop up to Psalms, and

 

[Field Begin] <WITHIN 10 Words> דוד

 

As for compiling a reference list, click on the hits you want by holding down the option button while you click on the verse. Then you can save the reference list for further searching.

 

Does this help?

[mikes]

I would alter my search slightly to exclude non-first verses (Dr. Tucker's search returns 72:20, 78:80 and others):

דוד <WITHIN 10 Words> [Field Begin]

With the search field set to "Chapter" and the drop down range set to "Psalms"

You'll end up with 74 verses instead of 89.

 

From your search results, you'll want to select all the verses (CMD+A) and create a reference list. Then detach the reference list (ALT+CMD+T) and save the workspace (i.e. list of verses you can recall by opening the workspace).

 

You can now the CONTENTS linking commend to restrict your searches to just that list of verses. For example, look for shyr (to sing) within these davidic superscripts:

‏=שׁיר‎<AND>‏ ‎[CONTENTS mine]‏

 

Now, if you actually wanted to include the full text of all these Psalms in your searches (74 Psalms), here's what I would do:

1. select all verses in the search window

2. Copy As... References

Psa 3:1; 4:1; 5:1; 6:1; 7:1; 8:1; 9:1; 11:1; 12:1; 13:1; 14:1; 15:1; 16:1; 17:1; 18:1; 19:1; 20:1; 21:1; 22:1; 23:1; 24:1; 25:1; 26:1; 27:1; 28:1; 29:1; 30:1; 31:1; 32:1; 34:1; 35:1; 36:1; 37:1; 38:1; 39:1; 40:1; 41:1; 51:1; 52:1; 53:1; 54:1; 55:1; 56:1; 57:1; 58:1; 59:1; 60:1; 61:1; 62:1; 63:1; 64:1; 65:1; 68:1; 69:1; 70:1; 86:1; 101:1; 103:1; 108:1; 109:1; 110:1; 122:1; 124:1; 131:1; 132:1; 133:1; 138:1; 139:1; 140:1; 141:1; 142:1; 143:1; 144:1; 145:1

A little vim magic ("s/:.;/,/g") and I get:

Psa 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 68, 69, 70, 86, 101, 103, 108, 109, 110, 122, 124, 131, 132, 133, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145

A few minutes later combining the consecutive list I get

Psa 3-9, 11-32, 34-41, 51-65, 68-70, 86, 101, 103, 108-110, 122, 124, 131-133, 138-145

 

I can now take two approaches:

1. Create a range (I verified it and created it myself)

2. Save as a reference list of verses and use the CONTENTS command against it too.

[Anthony Pyles]

Thanks for your help, guys!

 

Here's what I ended up doing, and it works pretty well. First, I defined custom ranges for the superscriptions for each book of the Psalter. I typed it all out, but it looks like the reason I couldn't just copy/paste was because my initial attempts were too long. Oh, well. Here are the ranges, in case anyone else wants to set them up but doesn't want to type. (I discovered in working through the superscriptions that some of them that refer to events in David's life actually comprise the first two verses.)

 

Sup 1

Ps 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, 4:1, 5:1, 6:1, 7:1, 8.1, 9.1, 10.1, 11.1, 12.1, 13.1, 14.1, 15.1, 16.1, 17.1, 18.1, 19.1, 20.1, 21.1, 22.1, 23.1, 24.1, 25.1, 26.1, 27.1, 28.1, 29.1, 30.1, 31.1, 32.1, 33.1, 34.1, 35.1, 36.1, 37.1, 38.1, 39.1, 40.1, 41.1

 

Sup 2

Ps 42.1, 43.1, 44.1, 45.1, 46.1, 47.1, 48.1, 49.1, 50.1, 51.1-2, 52.1-2, 53.1, 54.1-2, 55.1, 56.1, 57.1, 58.1, 59.1, 60.1-2, 61.1, 62.1, 63.1, 64.1, 65.1, 66.1, 67.1, 68.1, 69.1, 70.1, 71.1, 72.1

 

Sup 3

Ps 73.1, 74.1, 75.1, 76.1, 77.1, 78.1, 79.1, 80.1, 81.1, 82.1, 83.1, 84.1, 85.1, 86.1, 87.1, 88.1, 89.1

 

Sup 4

Ps 90.1, 91.1, 92.1, 93.1, 94.1, 95.1, 96.1, 97.1, 98.1, 99.1, 100.1, 101.1, 102.1, 103.1, 104.1, 105.1, 106.1

 

Sup 5

Ps 107.1, 108.1, 109.1, 110.1, 111.1, 112.1, 113.1, 114.1, 115.1, 116.1, 117.1, 118.1, 119.1, 120.1, 121.1, 123.1, 124.1, 125.1, 126.1, 127.1, 128.1, 129.1, 130.1, 131.1, 132.1, 133.1, 134.1, 135.1, 136.1, 137.1, 138.1, 139.1, 140.1, 141.1, 142.1, 143.1, 144.1, 145.1, 146.1, 147.1, 148.1, 149.1, 150.1, 151.1

 

I included Ps 151 as well since at the moment I'm also working with the Old Greek Psalter. Having defined thees ranges, I then created a new workspace, set up a tab searching each of these ranges, and then a sixth tab with the following (to display all the verses I get when I search across the superscriptions): ‏ ‎[CONTENTS Sup 1]‏ ‎<OR>‏ ‎[CONTENTS Sup 2]‏ ‎<OR>‏ ‎[CONTENTS Sup 3]‏ ‎<OR>‏ ‎[CONTENTS Sup 4]‏ ‎<OR>‏ ‎[CONTENTS Sup 5]‏

 

This setup works particularly well with a Hebrew (or Greek) construct window. I can tie each superscription tab to the construct window and search them all from there.

 

And, by the way, I also discovered that Ps 132 pops up, but the לדוד in Ps 132:1 is not part of a superscription! Just goes to show you still have to check the results!

 

Many thanks,

Tony Pyles

[Anon]

Thanks for your help, guys!

 

Here's what I ended up doing, and it works pretty well. First, I defined custom ranges for the superscriptions for each book of the Psalter. I typed it all out, but it looks like the reason I couldn't just copy/paste was because my initial attempts were too long. Oh, well. Here are the ranges, in case anyone else wants to set them up but doesn't want to type. (I discovered in working through the superscriptions that some of them that refer to events in David's life actually comprise the first two verses.)

 

Sup 1

Ps 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, 4:1, 5:1, 6:1, 7:1, 8.1, 9.1, 10.1, 11.1, 12.1, 13.1, 14.1, 15.1, 16.1, 17.1, 18.1, 19.1, 20.1, 21.1, 22.1, 23.1, 24.1, 25.1, 26.1, 27.1, 28.1, 29.1, 30.1, 31.1, 32.1, 33.1, 34.1, 35.1, 36.1, 37.1, 38.1, 39.1, 40.1, 41.1

 

Sup 2

Ps 42.1, 43.1, 44.1, 45.1, 46.1, 47.1, 48.1, 49.1, 50.1, 51.1-2, 52.1-2, 53.1, 54.1-2, 55.1, 56.1, 57.1, 58.1, 59.1, 60.1-2, 61.1, 62.1, 63.1, 64.1, 65.1, 66.1, 67.1, 68.1, 69.1, 70.1, 71.1, 72.1

 

Sup 3

Ps 73.1, 74.1, 75.1, 76.1, 77.1, 78.1, 79.1, 80.1, 81.1, 82.1, 83.1, 84.1, 85.1, 86.1, 87.1, 88.1, 89.1

 

Sup 4

Ps 90.1, 91.1, 92.1, 93.1, 94.1, 95.1, 96.1, 97.1, 98.1, 99.1, 100.1, 101.1, 102.1, 103.1, 104.1, 105.1, 106.1

 

Sup 5

Ps 107.1, 108.1, 109.1, 110.1, 111.1, 112.1, 113.1, 114.1, 115.1, 116.1, 117.1, 118.1, 119.1, 120.1, 121.1, 123.1, 124.1, 125.1, 126.1, 127.1, 128.1, 129.1, 130.1, 131.1, 132.1, 133.1, 134.1, 135.1, 136.1, 137.1, 138.1, 139.1, 140.1, 141.1, 142.1, 143.1, 144.1, 145.1, 146.1, 147.1, 148.1, 149.1, 150.1, 151.1

 

I included Ps 151 as well since at the moment I'm also working with the Old Greek Psalter. Having defined thees ranges, I then created a new workspace, set up a tab searching each of these ranges, and then a sixth tab with the following (to display all the verses I get when I search across the superscriptions): ‏ ‎[CONTENTS Sup 1]‏ ‎<OR>‏ ‎[CONTENTS Sup 2]‏ ‎<OR>‏ ‎[CONTENTS Sup 3]‏ ‎<OR>‏ ‎[CONTENTS Sup 4]‏ ‎<OR>‏ ‎[CONTENTS Sup 5]‏

 

This setup works particularly well with a Hebrew (or Greek) construct window. I can tie each superscription tab to the construct window and search them all from there.

 

And, by the way, I also discovered that Ps 132 pops up, but the לדוד in Ps 132:1 is not part of a superscription! Just goes to show you still have to check the results!

 

Many thanks,

Tony Pyles

 

Thanks for reporting back and providing the custom ranges you've defined. The malleable search features of Accordance are par excellence!

[Anthony Pyles]

Thanks for reporting back and providing the custom ranges you've defined. The malleable search features of Accordance are par excellence!

 

Hmm... I should have pointed out that I have not bothered to delete Pss that lack a superscription, nor did I add Pss 152

[Anthony Pyles]

Along these lines, is there a fast way to export/import custom ranges once I have set them up? It would be great to be able to transfer them between computers, or send them to colleagues working on the same corpus, etc. Is there a particular file in Accordance preferences associated with custom ranges?

[jpkang]

Your search ranges are stored at

 

~/Library/Preferences/Accordance Preferences/Search Ranges

[Lorinda H. M. Hoover]

Note, however, that sharing search ranges is an all-or-nothing thing: You can replace your search ranges with someone else's, but you can't ADD someone else's ranges to your existing rangers.