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Hello, i have a question about searching on Logos

Sometimes i have a situation when i need some kind of Bible verse or place in a book, but i'm not sure how the verse reads. Is there any way i can search for closest i had typed (for the most similar verse to what i put in).

I hope my question is understandable and thanks for help.

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Mark Barnes

Sometimes i have a situation when i need some kind of Bible verse or place in a book, but i'm not sure how the verse reads. Is there any way i can search for closest i had typed (for the most similar verse to what i put in).

Hi Edgars,

Yes, your questions is understandable. Unfortunately, there's not an easy way to do this in Logos 4/5.

The best way of searching in this case is to do a Basic search (not a Bible search) in your Top Bibles (in case you've remembered the verse in a different translation to the one you normally use). Then do the search with only use a few keywords from the verse, rather than trying to type it in exactly, but put commas between each word. Don't use very common words like "a" or "the", but only the words that will really help you to find this verse.

So imagine I'm trying to find the verse which I think says "whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good repute". I'd type in the keywords: whatever, lovely, good, repute. Now I've remembered wrong, because it actually says "good report", not "good repute". But if you look at the screenshot, you'll see that a ranked search still finds the verse I'm looking for:

Fred Chapman

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/628816#Comment_628816

In addition to what Mark said Logos also allows for proximity searches. In the example below I have search for the word "whatever" NEAR good or repute, or lovely. The NEAR could be changed to WITHIN a specified number and several other operators recognized by Logos.

This wiki page may be of value to you https://wiki.logos.com/Detailed_Search_Help

Wild Eagle

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/628823#Comment_628823

The quickest way for me is to google. It always works

Edgars

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/628816#Comment_628816

Ok, thanks for help. I'm still learning some functions on Logos

Edgars

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/628816#Comment_628816

But doesn't really work.

I was experimenting with search Mark advised, but that doesn't work.

John 3:16

For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

I typed:

God,loved,world,gave,son

God,loved,world

And many more. Not one worked.

Wild Eagle

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/628836#Comment_628836

You put very popular words and thats why you got many results. In your case, try:

"God NEAR love NEAR world NEAR gave NEAR son" or at least "God NEAR love NEAR world"

Wild Eagle

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/628844#Comment_628844

You might find this article helpful: https://wiki.logos.com/Detailed_Search_Help

Proximity Operators

Sometimes you may want more control than AND. Logos also offers proximity operators BEFORE, AFTER, WITHIN xx WORDS, and NEAR. They are mostly self-explanatory and are used like this:

Christ BEFORE Jesus – search for articles (Basic search) or bible verses (Bible search) that contain the word ‘Christ’ before the word ‘Jesus’.
Jesus AFTER Christ – a different way of expressing the same search.
Jesus BEFORE 2 WORDS Christ – search for articles (Basic search) or bible verses (Bible search) that contain the word ‘Jesus’ one or two words before the word ‘Christ’. It will return “Jesus Christ” (one word before) or “Jesus the Christ” (two words before). It would not return “Jesus is the Christ”, because that is three words before.
Christ AFTER 2 WORDS Jesus – a different way of expressing the same search.
Jesus BEFORE 3-5 WORDS Christ – search for articles/verses that contain the word Jesus three, four, or five words before the word Christ. It would find “Jesus was the Christ” (3 words before), and “Jesus who is called Christ” (4 words before), but not “Jesus the Christ” (2 words before). If you want a search for words an EXACT number of words before/after another one, you should do something like this: the BEFORE 2-2 WORDS day, which would find “the first day”, “the last day”, etc., but not “the day” or “the very next day”.
Jesus WITHIN 5 WORDS love – searches for the word Jesus within five words of the word ‘love’. In this case it doesn’t matter whether ‘Jesus’ comes after ‘love’, or before ‘love’. All that matters is that there are no more than four words between them (so they are therefore within 5 words).
Jesus WITHIN 20 CHARS love – searches for the word Jesus within 20 characters of the word ‘love’. AFTER and BEFORE can also be used with CHARS.
Jesus NEAR love – NEAR means “within 48 characters” (which is about 10 words). In Basic search NEAR also searches nearby footnotes (unlike BEFORE, AFTER or WITHIN).

Rosie Perera

You are describing what was the "fuzzy search" feature which existed way back in Logos 3 (Libronix). It would find verses when you only remembered them approximately (it would take into account synonyms and different word order, etc.) Fuzzy search would need to be rewritten from the ground up because Logos's internal engine was overhauled for Logos 4; presumably it would be hard work, which is likely why the company deferred putting it back in. Users have been asking to have that feature put back in again ever since Logos 4. We don't buy that "it would be hard" is an excuse not to do it. It would be very useful.

If you would like Logos to do "fuzzy search" again in a future version, please vote for that feature here:

http://logos.uservoice.com/forums/42823-logos-bible-software-5/suggestions/510241-bring-back-topic-search-and-fuzzy-search

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/628836#Comment_628836

God,loved,world,gave,son

God,loved,world

In this example, a Bible search for God loved world gave son would have returned the right verse. My suggestion works best for less common words, as others have said.

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/628859#Comment_628859

God,loved,world,gave,son

God,loved,world

In this example, a Bible search for God loved world gave son would have returned the right verse. My suggestion works best for less common words, as others have said.

Having spaces between the words means all words need to be present and a Bible search restricts those words to the same verse. A Basic search of your bibles means that those words can be anywhere in the same chapter, giving you more (confusing) results.

Hamilton Ramos

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/628823#Comment_628823

Good afternoon, God bless you all.

Thanks to all of you that share your knowledge with other believers.

I have a question, do you know if there exists a controlled vocabulary list of Christian Religion words that one can use to facilitate the use of the proximity search in Logos 5?

I am beginning to use proximity search, and I find it very helpful, but I wonder if there is a list of words that would allow me to more quickly and precisely express the concept I am looking for.

As examples I have searched:

Life WITHIN 5 words principles, Bear WITHIN 5 words fruit, Jesus WITHIN 5 words commands, Shekinah WITHIN 5 words God, etc.

By doing this kind of search, I have obtained incredible results, that really pinpoint key concepts.

Lately I try to think in ways I can use two words to search important concepts in Logos, and I wonder if any of you know of the existence of a terms, glossary, or controlled vocabulary list, that concentrates in Christian concepts.

kind regards, and thanks ahead of time for any help you can provide.

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/650765#Comment_650765

Logos includes a controlled vocabulary, but it's not possible to simply view it as a list, as far as I know.

The list at http://topics.logos.com/ might be a good starting place though.

Hamilton Ramos

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/650788#Comment_650788

Thank you very much, the url you referred me to, is helpful, as it lists concepts that i can search using proximity feature.

God Bless you.