Agent to find notes with particular words

Q & A - getting started with Tinderbox
1

I want to create an agent that finds notes that have the word “transcript” in the $Name. How do I do that?

And, if wanted notes that had “transcript” in the either the $Name or $Text or both?

I know this is basic but the answer will unlock a whole lot of other things that I might like to do.

Thanks.

Bryan

2

An agent that finds notes that have the word “transcript” in the $Name

Query: $Name.contains("transcript")

An agent that finds notes that had “transcript” in the either the $Name or $Text

Query: $Name.contains("transcript") | Text.contains("transcript")

3

Further to the above, if you want the comparison to be case-insensitive, use .icontains() instead of .contains(). So:

$Name.icontains("transcript")

will match “transcript”, “Transcript”, as well as “tranSCript” or any other case combination for that word.

See more: for .contains() and .icontains().

4

Thank you all for the valuable information.
it was possible to organize search in any TBX-file

  1. by creating attribute findName in agent and writing query in agent:
Text.icontains($findName(agent))|$Name.icontains($findName(agent))|$FullName.icontains($findName(agent))
  1. By creating a rule in the prototype for all notes:
Text.icontains($findName)|$Name.icontains($findName)|$FullName.icontains($findName)
5

[I’ve added formatting to the last post to make it easier to read to code (using Admin’s access)]

Although Text.icontains... works for legacy support reasons the correct syntax here is $Text.icontains....

Your #2 does nothing except add load to the rule processing. The code evaluates a query as true or false. But in a rule that outcome is pointless as you aren’t doing anything with the output. Instead, you are running 3 computationally expensive query terms in every note button no effect. I would suggest removing that rule.

Also, though findAgent is a valid attribute name, if re-using this code I’d suggest using FindAgent as being more consistent with Tinderbox attribute naming convention (N.B. attributes are case-sensitive). Why? because it is easy for most typists to make case errors and they are easier to spot for things like attributes if one uses a consistent naming method. When I see $findAgent I immediately think is that a typo or a deliberate name!

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6

It really worked, and when you delete the rules under point 2
But for some reason I do not react to the case of letters in the command icontains
I’ll take your comment about naming attributes into account in the future

7

What is the string (exact case please) that you can’t match, and in what attribute?

If the target attribute is $Name don’t forget that on screen, in the view, you are seeing $DisplayName not $Name and the two strings may differ from $Name if you are using a Display Expression. So, you might be trying to match characters that aren’t actually in $Name but only in $DisplayName.

8

it turns out that this is not the case:
If the notes or names are in English, everything works, but if it’s not in Latin, it doesn’t work!

9

That sounds odd. Words in Latin should not be an issue:

$Text.icontains("gaius julius caesar")

Will still match “Gaius Julius Ceasar”.

So, an example of text (in $Name, $Text or $FullName) that you think doesn’t work would help us to help you. :slight_smile:

10

Now try this:
Γάιος Ιούλιος Καίσαρας
γάιος ιούλιος καίσαρας
and it won’t work

11

Ah, you meant a non-Roman text. :slight_smile: That possibility occurred just after I’d posted. I can confirm your problem with the (I’m using OS 10.14.6 in case that is pertinent, and my locale is ‘en-gb’).

Checking further, I can use the capitalised version of the text with .lowercase' and get the lowercase example string. I can do the reverse with the lower-case example and .uppercasebut not.capitalize`.

Well, this is a workaround for now. For me, with a note holding one of the two examples in the $Text of two different notes, this agent matches both notes:

$Text.lowercase.icontains("γάιος ιούλιος καίσαρας")

Note that this query doesn’t affect the source $text, but instead tests an all-lowercase version of the source.

Here’s my test file: Greek-test.tbx (87.9 KB)

It may work as a stop-gap. I’ve only tested the examples given but the file should allow you to test a bit more.

12

This will be addressed in Tinderbox 9; .contains and .icontains don’t have all the Unicode support one could wish.

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