Search Help

Tim
Tim Member Posts: 256 ✭✭
edited November 21 in English Forum

It would seem to me that there ought to be a sort of ANY TWO search syntax.  I have dug through the wiki and cannot seem to find a way to do this, hoping that one of you all might have a way to use the existing search syntax to accomplish that particular kind of search. 

I am looking to perform a search on a list of words where any two (or three, etc) are found together. For example if I want to search on the words: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, discretion, discernment,  but I only want results where I have any two of those words (wisdom & discretion; knowledge & discretion; understanding & discernment, etc). 

Does anyone know if/how this might be done? Thanks!

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Comments

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 35,682

    Without getting too complicated try

    (discernment WITHIN 6 WORD  wisdom, understanding, knowledge) OR  (knowledge WITHIN 6 WORD  wisdom, understanding)  OR (wisdom WITHIN 6 WORDS understanding)

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 35,682

    Without getting too complicated try

    (discernment WITHIN 6 WORD  wisdom, understanding, knowledge) OR  (knowledge WITHIN 6 WORD  wisdom, understanding)  OR (wisdom WITHIN 6 WORDS understanding)

    If you see the pattern you can mix fewer or more words (I omitted one of your words).

    A Morph Query is more precise, but you have to get the lemmas from your Bible Search and have one query for Greek and another for Hebrew.

    image

    You can allow the words to occur within 1 verse or more (crossing verse boundaries). "In order" prevents multiple listings of the same result.

    Use Add relation to get Span and Disagree.

    Add a third word (Word 3) if you want combos of three words to be shown

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • For example if I want to search on the words: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, discretion, discernment,  but I only want results where I have any two of those words (wisdom & discretion; knowledge & discretion; understanding & discernment, etc). 

    Bible Search suggestion to find two or more words in a verse:

    (wisdom, understanding, knowledge, discretion, discernment) WITHIN 7 WORDS (wisdom, understanding, knowledge, discretion, discernment)

    Keep Smiling [:)]

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 53,136

    Doesn't a Bible search automatically limit itself to a verse rendering the proximity specification unneeded?

    Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

  • Tim
    Tim Member Posts: 256 ✭✭

    A Bible search does limit rendering proximity to within a verse, but using a basic search and then selecting the desired Bible will expand that out to chapter which usually for my own purposes is close enough. 

    I haven't tried Dave's search (which looks fascinating & promising) but I do suspect that you are correct that it will be limited within the constraints of versification. 

    Where I am looking within the framework of verses, Keep Smiling's suggestion also looks promising. 

    Thank you to all of you for your help, I really appreciate you sharing your own insights and expertise!

  • Doesn't a Bible search automatically limit itself to a verse rendering the proximity specification unneeded?

    Proximity is needed to find two (or more) words in a verse.

    Keep Smiling [:)]

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 53,136

    Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 35,682

    Where I am looking within the framework of verses, Keep Smiling's suggestion also looks promising. 

    It is simpler, but it allows a repetition of words  e.g.wisdom with wisdom (1 Cor 2:6), knowledge with knowledge (1 Cor 8:1).

    I interpreted "any two of those words" to be "any two different words".

    Both Searches will not prevent 3 occurrences (Prov 2:6, 14:6). "ONLY two of the words" in a verse or chapter means a search like

    ((x1 AND x2) AND NOT (x3, x4)) OR ((x1 AND x3) AND NOT (x2, x4)) OR ((x1 AND x4) AND NOT (x2, x3)) OR

    ((x2 AND x3) AND NOT (x1, x4)) OR ((x2 AND x4) AND NOT (x1, x3)) OR

    ((x3 AND x4) AND NOT (x1, x2))

    The pattern gets longer with 5 terms.

    A Bible search does limit rendering proximity to within a verse,

    I used AND for that reason. But using proximity (WITHIN 6 WORDS) is important if you want the occurrences to be grammatically related (if too far apart within a verse or a chapter, they could be totally unrelated). 

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13