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I want to make a selection on this list

words = {{{"word1", "word2"}, 19}, {{"word1", "word3"}, 
   8}, {{"word1", "word4"}, 7}, {{"word2", "word5"}, 
   7}, {{"word2", "word5"}, 7}, {{"word3", "word6"}, 
   7}, {{"word3", "word7"}, 7}, {{"word3", "word8"}, 
   6}, {{"word4", "word6"}, 6}};

From this list, I want to select all 'records' which have one of these words

wordsselect = {"word2", "word4", "word8"}

The desirde output is:

wordsnew = {{{"word1", "word2"}, 19}, {{"word1", "word4"}, 
   7}, {{"word2", "word5"}, 7}, {{"word2", "word5"}, 
   7}, {{"word3", "word8"}, 6}, {{"word4", "word6"}, 6}}

I tried to make a selection based on one word

Select[words[[All, {1, 2}]], MemberQ[#[[1]], "word2"] &]

this works fine. So I tried the next script

Select[words[[All, {1, 2}]], MemberQ[#[[1]], wordsselect ] &]

The output is empty {}

I have two questions:

  1. How do I get the desired output?

  2. Why is my second try not working?

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  • 6
    $\begingroup$ Try Alternatives@@wordsselect instead. This will be a real pattern involving alternatives. Your pattern matches with any list that exactly equals the list of three words. $\endgroup$
    – Sjoerd C. de Vries
    Jul 13, 2015 at 20:59

5 Answers 5

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As already noted the second argument of MemberQ needs to be a pattern or literal expression; Alternatives can be used here.

Another method is to use IntersectingQ instead:

Select[words, IntersectingQ[#[[1]], wordsselect] &]

{{{"word1", "word2"}, 19}, {{"word1", "word4"}, 7},
 {{"word2", "word5"}, 7}, {{"word2", "word5"}, 7},
 {{"word3", "word8"}, 6}, {{"word4", "word6"}, 6}}
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  • $\begingroup$ thank you again finding yet another useful function I was not aware of: IntersectingQ...my blindspot seems ever increasing as my time is ever decreasing...+1 :) $\endgroup$
    – ubpdqn
    Jul 14, 2015 at 12:55
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  1. This one should work:

Select[words, Or @@ (MemberQ[wordsselect, #] & /@ #[[1]]) &]

It checks for each one of the words in the first list-element. If there is at least one word in the wordsselect list then the whole element is selected.

  1. With MemberQ[#[[1]], wordsselect ] & you are checking if the list wordsselect is inside each {"wordX","wordY"}
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Select[words, MemberQ[#[[1]], "word1" | "word2" | "word8"] &]
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Just for something different:

Flatten[Last@Reap[Sow[{##}, #1] & @@@ words, wordsselect, #2 &], 2]
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Pre v10 without IntersectingQ you can do this:

 Select[words, Length@Intersection[#[[1]], wordsselect] > 0 &]
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