FindTextualAnswer

FindTextualAnswer[text,"question"]

gives the substring of text that best appears to answer question.

FindTextualAnswer[text,"question",n]

gives a list of up to n answers that appear most probable.

FindTextualAnswer[text,"question",n,prop]

gives the specified property for each answer.

Details and Options

  • In FindTextualAnswer[text,…], text can be a string, a file with plain text, a ContentObject expression or a list of these text objects.
  • FindTextualAnswer[text,{"question1","question2",…},…] gives answers for each of the questioni.
  • The property prop can be one of the following:
  • "String"substring corresponding to candidate answer
    "Probability"
  • estimated probability that the answer is correct
    • "Position"
  • start and end positions in text of the answer
    • "Sentence"sentence containing the candidate answer
    "Line"line containing the candidate answer
    "Paragraph"paragraph containing the candidate answer
    "HighlightedSentence"sentence with candidate answer highlighted
    "HighlightedLine"line with candidate answer highlighted
    "HighlightedParagraph"paragraph with candidate answer highlighted
    {prop1,prop2,…}a list of property specifications
  • The following option can be given:
  • TargetDevice "CPU"target device on which to perform the computation
    PerformanceGoal Automaticwhich aspects of performance to optimize
  • Possible settings for PerformanceGoal include "Speed" and "Quality".
  • FindTextualAnswer uses statistical methods to try to find answers. Details of the text and question can affect its performance.
  • FindTextualAnswer may download resources that will be stored in your local object store at $LocalBase, and that can be listed using LocalObjects[] and removed using ResourceRemove.

Examples

open allclose all

Basic Examples  (2)

Answer a question from a sentence:

Answer a question from a paragraph:

Scope  (6)

Find multiple possible answers from a text:

Find multiple possible answers along with their probability:

Answer several questions:

Find the sentence containing the answer:

Get the position of the answer in the question:

Answer several questions and display the answers in context:

Look for the answer to a question from a ContentObject expression:

Options  (2)

PerformanceGoal  (1)

Use PerformanceGoal"Quality" to get a more accurate answer:

TargetDevice  (1)

Answer questions using the default system GPU, if available:

The computation is typically faster than with CPU:

If a compatible GPU is not available, a message is issued:

Applications  (1)

Search an Answer to a General Question in Wikipedia  (1)

Display in context the possible answers from a Wikipedia search:

The instances of the same names can be grouped along with their probabilities:

Then the one with the largest total sum of probability is probably the good answer:

Possible Issues  (1)

FindTextualAnswer is able to understand semantic concepts to some extent but is not able to use logic to guess a number:

Wolfram Research (2018), FindTextualAnswer, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FindTextualAnswer.html (updated 2020).

Text

Wolfram Research (2018), FindTextualAnswer, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FindTextualAnswer.html (updated 2020).

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2018. "FindTextualAnswer." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2020. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FindTextualAnswer.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2018). FindTextualAnswer. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FindTextualAnswer.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2024_findtextualanswer, author="Wolfram Research", title="{FindTextualAnswer}", year="2020", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FindTextualAnswer.html}", note=[Accessed: 30-December-2024 ]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2024_findtextualanswer, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={FindTextualAnswer}, year={2020}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FindTextualAnswer.html}, note=[Accessed: 30-December-2024 ]}