A function to search a local MIT classics database (as set up by the function SearchMITclassics.R) for words and phrases

SearchMITclassics.R

SearchMITclassics <-
function(dirpath="E:\\DATA\\CLASSICS",wordorphrase,linespm=2){
       writers <- list.files(dirpath)
       writers <- select.list(writers,title="Select Writers",multiple=TRUE,preselect=writers)
       output <- list()
       indicesalso <- c(1:linespm,-1:-linespm) # for grabbing nearby lines
       for (i in 1:length(writers)){
               writeri <- list()
               worksi <- list.files(paste(dirpath,writers[i],sep="\\"))
               if (length(writers)==1){
                       if (length(worksi)>1){
                               worksi <- select.list(worksi,
                                                  title="Select Works",multiple=TRUE,preselect=worksi)
                       }
               }
               pathsi <- paste(dirpath,writers[i],worksi,sep="\\")
               worksi <- unlist(lapply(strsplit(worksi,split="\\."),function(x){x[1]}))
               for (j in 1:length(worksi)){
                       Textij <- readLines(pathsi[j],warn=F)
                       midindices <- grep(wordorphrase,Textij,ignore.case = TRUE)
                       if (length(midindices)>0){
                               gm <- grep("THE END",Textij,ignore.case = TRUE)
                               maxg <- ifelse(any(gm),max(gm),length(Textij))
                               midindices <- midindices[midindices < maxg &
                                                 midindices > min(grep("by",Textij,ignore.case = TRUE))]
                               if (length(midindices)>0){
                                       kk <- list()
                                       for (k in 1:length(midindices)){
                                               indicesk <- unique(sort(c(midindices[k],midindices[k]+indicesalso)))
                                               kk[[k]] <- Textij[indicesk]
                                       }
                                       writeri[[worksi[j]]] <- kk
                               }
                       }
               }
               if (length(writeri)>0){
                       output[[writers[i]]] <- writeri
               }
       }
       gc()
       return(output)
}