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.
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:
-
- 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 all close allBasic 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:
See Also
WolframAlpha TextCases TextSearch WikipediaSearch WebSearch EntityValue
Function Repository: GenerateQuestionsFromSentence
Related Guides
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_2025_findtextualanswer, author="Wolfram Research", title="{FindTextualAnswer}", year="2020", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FindTextualAnswer.html}", note=[Accessed: 05-December-2025]}
BibLaTeX
@online{reference.wolfram_2025_findtextualanswer, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={FindTextualAnswer}, year={2020}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FindTextualAnswer.html}, note=[Accessed: 05-December-2025]}