lexnlp.extract.en.constraints: Extracting constraint statements

The lexnlp.extract.en.constraints module contains methods that allow for the extraction of constraint statements from text. Statements that are covered by default in this module are:

  • after
  • at least
  • at most
  • before
  • equal to
  • exactly
  • first of
  • greater
  • greater of
  • greater than
  • greater than or equal to
  • greatest of
  • last of
  • least of
  • lesser
  • lesser of
  • lesser than
  • less than
  • less than or equal to
  • maximum of
  • maximum
  • minimum of
  • minimum
  • more than
  • more than or equal to
  • no earlier than
  • no later than
  • no less than
  • no more than
  • not equal to
  • not to exceed
  • earlier than
  • later than
  • within
  • exceed
  • exceeds
  • prior to
  • highest
  • least
  • smallest among

The full list of current unit test cases can be found here: https://github.com/LexPredict/lexpredict-lexnlp/tree/master/test_data/lexnlp/extract/en/tests/test_constraints

Extracting constraints

lexnlp.extract.en.constraints.get_constraints(text, strict=False) → typing.Generator

Find possible constraints in natural language. :param text: :param strict: :return:

Example

>>> import lexnlp.extract.en.constraints
>>> text = "This will occur at most three times."
>>> print(list(lexnlp.extract.en.constraints.get_constraints(text)))
[('at most', 'this will occur', '')]

>>> import lexnlp.extract.en.conditions
>>> text = "The rate shall be no less than 50 bps."
>>> print(list(lexnlp.extract.en.constraints.get_constraints(text)))
[('no less than', 'the rate shall be', '')]

Customizing constraint statement extraction

Constraint statement extraction can be customized. There are two key module variables that store the default configuration and one function used to create a matching instance:

  • CONSTRAINT_PHRASES: This List stores the “trigger” phrases that are used to identify constraint statements. They are typically adverbial or prepositional phrases.
  • CONSTRAINT_PATTERN_TEMPLATE: This String stores the regular expression pattern that drives matching in this module.
lexnlp.extract.en.constraints.create_constraint_pattern(constraint_pattern_template, constraint_phrases)

Create constraint pattern. :param constraint_pattern_template: :param constraint_phrases: :return:

Note

For more examples and information about natural language constraints, see the linguistic resources below:

The default behavior of this module can be customized by overriding the value of RE_CONSTRAINT with a new regular expression created using create_constraint_pattern above. The example below demonstrates a simple addition of a new phrase:

>>> # Out of the box behavior
>>> import lexnlp.extract.en.constraints
>>> text = "The applicable rate shall be the smallest among thing A and thing B at time T."
>>> print(list(lexnlp.extract.en.constraints.get_constraints(text)))
[]

>>> # Customize the `RE_CONSTRAINT` variable by adding a new phrase
>>> import regex as re
>>> my_constraint_phrases = lexnlp.extract.en.constraints.CONSTRAINT_PHRASES
>>> my_constraint_phrases.append("smallest among")
>>> CONSTRAINT_PATTERN = lexnlp.extract.en.constraints.create_constraint_pattern(lexnlp.extract.en.constraints.CONSTRAINT_PATTERN_TEMPLATE, my_constraint_phrases)
>>> lexnlp.extract.en.constraints.RE_CONSTRAINT = re.compile(CONSTRAINT_PATTERN, re.IGNORECASE | re.UNICODE | re.DOTALL | re.MULTILINE | re.VERBOSE)

>>> # Run the `get_constraints` method again to test
>>> print(list(lexnlp.extract.en.constraints.get_constraints(text)))
[('smallest among', 'the applicable rate shall be the', '')]